GENERAL  SOCIETY  of  MECHANICS  and  TRADESMEN 

MECHANICS  INSTITUTE 

LIBRARY  DEPARTMENT 

!l^ '  Readers  are  forbidden  to  MUTILATE 
this  slip.    If  lost  or  defaced)  a  penalty  of 
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date: 

FOLIO 

m'4  -  s  m. 

, 

■ 

wrr  INDRAWN 


THE    WORLD    ON    WHEELS 


AND    ITS    ASSOCIATIONS. 


THE    WORLD    ON    WHEELS; 


CAEKIAGES, 


WITH    TIIKIB 


HISTORICAL   ASSOCIATIONS  FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TO 

THE   PRESENT   TIME,  j  I    /. 


INCLUDING 


TUE    AMERICAN    CENTENNIAL    EXHIBITION. 


EZRA   M.  STRATTON. 


PliACTlCAL    CARKIAOE-BUILDEr,,    KDITOK    OF    THE    "  NEW   YOKK    COACH-MAKEli's    MAGAZINE,"  AND 
UONOr.ARY  MEMBKIl  OF  TUE  CA  RKIAC  L-EriLDEi:s'  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION. 


"gmxhy  Jfour  DunbrijlEr  Illustrations. 


'This  is  the  raLUiiifi,  rowluiy,  rumbling  iise,  aiid  the  World  runncs  on  Whceles." 

Taylor,  The  Water  Poet. 


NEW    YORK: 
PUBLISHED     BY     THE      AUTIIOJi, 

S'J.j  East  Eigiitickntu   Stuekt. 

1878. 


\  ■■ 


Copyright: 

By  EZKA  M.  STKATTON, 

A.  D.  1878. 


Kleclroli/pcd  iiiul  J'rinled  by 
Ali'Uku  Muuok  &  Hon,  Uobton. 


ALL    ADMIRERS    AND    LOVERS 

OF  TUE 

COACn-MAKER\S    HANDIWORK   IN   ALL    LANDS, 

^I/is  Solium 
is  most  sincerely  lxscrided  by 

The  Author. 


PRE  FACE 


EARLIEST  allusion  to  wheel-carriages 
is  found  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  where 
Pharaoh  commands  his  prime  minister, 
saying,  "Take  you  wagons  [chariots V] 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  for  your  little 
ones  and  for  your  wives,  and  come." 
More  than  thirty-five  centuries  have 
since  passed  away,  during  which  carriages,  under  a  multitude 
of  forms,  have  rendered  man  important  service,  either  in 
business,  for  his  comfort,  or  at  his  decease.  More  than  this, 
they  have  served  as  thermometers  in  recording  the  rise  or 
fall  of  civilization  in  every  stage  of  its  progress.  To  poiut 
out  how  they  have  persistently  pushed  their  way  through 
opposition  from  fierce  enmity  to  present  popularity  has  been 
a  potent  incentive  to  the  compilation  of  this  volume. 

Several  attempts  have  heretofore  been  made  to  write  the 
history  of  carriages,  generally  limited  in  the  treatment,  or 
chiefly  confined  to  mechanical  instruction,  of  very  little  inter- 
est to  general  readers.  The  cream  of  some  of  these,  a  study 
of  years,  con  amove,  added  to  the  experience  of  a  lifetime, 
has  here  for  the  first  time  been  collected  for  the  special 
benefit   and   amusement  of  all   lovers  of  the   coach-maker's 


4  PEEFACE. 

handiwork.  The  numerous  illustrations,  drawn  on  the  block 
from  the  author's  designs  or  reduced  native  originals,  by  our 
son,  E.  Washington  Stratton,  serve  to  show  the  progress  and 
condition  of  art  in  different  countries  much  more  effectually 
than  could  be  done  in  the  most  finished  essay  under  any 
circumstances.  If  in  outline  some  of  these  seem  at  variance 
with  Hogarth's  "line  of  beauty,"  we  trust  the  public  will 
still  accept  them  as  a  sacrifice  we  have  been  compelled  to 
offer  at  the  shrine  of  historical  impartiality  and  undisguised 
truthfulness. 

In  addition  to  the  kindness  of  friends  elsewhere  acknowl- 
edged in  this  volume,  the  author  would  mention  with  special 
thanks  Messrs.  George  M.  Hooper  &  Co.,  of  London,  Coach- 
makers  to  the  Queen  and  II.  R.  H.  the  Prince  of  Wales,  for  a 
variety  of  favors ;  and  T.  Farmer  Baily,  Esq.,  Sunnyside,  E,yde, 
Isle  of  Wight,  for  the  libei'al  use  of  his  scrap-book,  "  Collection 
of  Coaches,"  recently  on  exhibition  in  the  South  Kensington 
Museum,  London,  without  which  much  of  the  interest  given 
to  this  work  would  have  been  lost. 


New  York,  March  27,  18 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 


Egyptian.  —  Man's  necessities  the  primary  cause  of  inventive  action. — The  lower  ani- 
mals subjugated  by  him.  —  The  sledge  an  inceptive  idea  in  coach-making.  —  Egyp- 
tians the  inventors  of  chariots.  — Egyptian  funeral  ceremonies  and  early  use  of  the 
sledge.  —  Improved  sledge-wagon.  —  A  leaf  from  the  history  of  Menepthah  I, 
whereon  are  described  the  ceremonies  attendant  upon  the  surrender  of  an  enemy 
to  the  victor.  —  The  chariot  and  furniture  described.  —  General  remarks  concern- 
ing the  bass-reliefs  found  on  monuments.  —  Sketches  of  the  life  of  Eameses  II, 
showing  the  cruelties  of  the  Egyptians.  — Egyptian  horse-blankets  and  yokes.  — 
Carts  of  the  Tokkari.  —  Conquests  of  Kameses  III  in  Central  Africa  and  portions 
of  Asia.  —  Chariots  of  the  period,  their  beauties  and  defects  examined.  —  The 
reigns  of  Menepthah  II  and  III. — Military  organizations  of  the  Egyptians.— 
Baggage-cart.  —  Ceremonies  observed  in  honor  of  Amun.  —  Hunting  as  pursued 
by  the  Egyptians.  —  Rameses  IV  and  his  deeds  as  recorded  in  the  Temple  at 
Luxor.  —  Description  of  a  chariot  in  the  Elorentine  Museum,  and  the  fragments 
of  another  in  the  New  York  Historical  Society's  Collection.  —  Extracts  in  praise 
of  the  horse.  —  Illustrations  showing  the  different  modes  of  building  chariots  in 
Egypt Pages  17-68 

CHAPTER    II. 

Assyrian.  —  The  reclaimed  treasures  of  Assyrian  art  preserved  in  the  Louvre  and 
'  British  Museum.  —  Probable  introduction  of  chariots  into  Assyria  by  the  invading 
army  of  Sesostris.  —  Water  transportation  of  the  king's  army.  —  Reasons  for  the 
chronology  adopted  in  this  chapter.  —  Comparison  of  Egyptian  with  Assyrian 
rules  of  scientific  art.  —  Peace  treaty  with  an  enemy.  —  The  monarch  of  Assyria 
hunting  the  monarch  of  the  jungle.  —  Critical  examination  of  Assyrian  chariots.  — 
Thorn  in  the  lion's  tail.  —  Chariot  from  Khorsabad  in  a  battle-scene.  —  Assyrian 
horse-trappings.  —  Chariots  of  gold,  silver,  and  costly  woods.  —  Probable  use  of 
iron  wheels.  — The  king's  wheel-chair  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  eunuchs.  — Char- 
iots captured  from  an  enemy.  —  Sennacherib  in  a  chariot  before  Lachish,  guarded 
by  soldiers.  —  Harness  of  the  Assyrians.  —  Conjectural  chariots  of  the  Trojans.  — 
Was  art  among  the  Assyrians  of  home  growth,  or  was  it  imported  from  Egypt?  — 
Elamitish,  Armenian,  and  Susianian  carts,  drawn  by  horses,  mules,  and  oxen, 
taken  by  "the  great  king  "in  battle Pages  G9-92 

CHAPTER    III. 

Persian.  —  Assyrian  character  of  the  earlier  Persepolitan  vehicles.  —  Bass-reliefs 
found  at  Persepolis,  representing  chariots.  —  Persian  belief  in  auguries.  --Idol-car 
from  Persepolis.  — Scythe-chariots  in  the  army  of  Ninus.  —  Cyrus  abolishes  the 


6  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

old  chariots,  and  invents  new  ones  with  scythes. — Xenophon's  description  of 
scythe-chariots. — Abradatus  adds  four  perches,  which  induces  Cyrus  to  build  a 
chariot  with  eight.  —  Scythe-chariots  proved  failures  in  an  encounter  with  Egyp- 
tian soldiers.  —  Curtius  describes  an  encounter  between  Alexander  and  Darius. — 
LeClerc's  criticism  of  Curtius  on  scythe-chariots,  in  which  he  indorses  tlie  specu- 
lations of  Jolin  Scheffei'.  —  Livy  and  Diodorus  on  hooked  chariots.  —Labors  of 
Sclieifer  to  reconcile  Curtius  to  "common-sense." — Ginzrot  pronounces  tlie  savans 
at  fault,  owing  to  a  defective  education  in  carriage-building,  and  animadverts  on 
the  ignorance  of  Vegetius,  Stechevius,  and  others.  —  Scythe-chariots  fail  when 
tried  against  tlie  legions  of  Alexander.  —  The  barbarians  under  Porus  meet  Alex- 
ander in  India.  —  Alexander  by  strategy  defeats  the  Thraciau  object  with  chariots. 

—  Pharmaces  attacks  Cassar's  army  with  scythe-chariots  near  Ziela,  and  is  beaten. 

—  The  currus-falcata  of  Antiochus.  —  Scythe-chariots  despised  by  Alexander  Seve- 
rus.  —  Persian  harmamaxa,  used  by  the  ladies.  —  Description  of  Alexander's  state 
funeral-car.  —  Modern  farmer's  cart Pages  93-115 

CHAP  TEE    ly. 

Grecian. —Invention  of  chariots  ascribed  to  Mars  and  others,  Erichthonius  being 
credited  with  first  using  four  horses  to  vehicles.  —  Geuei'al  employment  of  vehicles 
throughout  Greece.  —  Materials  used  in  the  construction  of  diphrons. — Plato's 
description  of  a  chariot.  —  Grecian  trophy  in  the  Vatican  Museum.  —  Spoils  of 
victory  dedicated  to  the  gods. — Unfaithfulness  of  Myrtilus,  the  charioteer  of 
(Enomaus.  —  Chariot-races  in  the  Olympian  games.  —  Contested  by  kings.  — 
Cyuisca  a  victor  in  the  chariot-race.  —  Nestor's  instructions  to  Autilochus.  — 
Anniceus,  a  skillful  driver,  experiments  before  Plato  and  his  scholars.  —  Poetical 
description  of  a  chariot-race.  —  Chariot  of  Eos.  —  Curious  picture  from  a  vase.  — 
Flight  of  Priam  from  Troy.  —  Mars  and  his  bloody  work.  —  Chariots  in  use  by  the 
females  of  Greece.  —  Homeric  chariot-building.  —  Hesiod  on  felling  timber.  — 
Bass-reliefs  from.  Mycenae.  —  Etruscan  chariots  from  the  vases,  similar  to  the 
Grecian Pages  116-136 

CHAPTEK     y. 

Roman. — Royal  highways  all  leading  to  Rome. — Early  introduction  of  the  lectica 
into  the  empire  from  the  East,  followed  by  the  basterna,  a  slow  mode  of  travel.  — 
Cai'pentum  and  its  special  uses.  —  Messalina  brings  it  into  disgrace.  —  Carpentum 
Pompaticum,  or  state-carriage.  —  Pileutum  popular  in  sacred,  processions.  —  Cisi- 
ura,  the  post-coach,  stigmatized  as  the  "gallant's  carriage."  —  Monachus,  the 
lady's  pony-phaeton.  —  The  birotum.  — The  arcera.  —  The  carrus,  called  by  Caesar 
a  plaustrum,  in  use  by  the  Helvetians.  —  Difference  between  the  currus  aud  plaus- 
trum  explained ;  how  constructed  and  employed.  —  Dogs  attendant  on  oxen.  ~ 
Plaustra  majora,  plostellum,  curriculus,  and  pegma.  —Chariots,  how  distinguished 
in  the  Vatican  Museum.  —  Poles,  yokes,  etc.  —  Bigas.  —  Circus  Maximus  aud  tho 
race-course.  —  Royal  punishment  for  free  opinions. — Nero  a  charioteer.  —  Cos- 
tume in  the  race.  —  Upset  quadriga.  — Virgil's  description  of  the  race.  —  Wild  ani- 
mals trained  for  the  circus.  —  Triumphs  of  PauUus  iEmilius  and  of  Titus.  —  Cre- 
mation.—  A  sportsman's  funeral.  —  Rhedas  described.  —  Vehicula  meritoria. — 
Carruca.  —  Authors  on  the  Thcnsa. — The  "rustic"  beuna.  —  Names  of  Roman 
vehicles.  —  Carriage-part.  —  Odometer.  —  Myrmecides'  carriage  and  horses  "no 
larger  than  a  fly."  —  Modern  Roman  carriages     ....        Pages  137-182 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTEE    YI. 

Italian.  —  Our  knowledge  of  carriage-building  at  Pompeii  dependent  on  the  truthful- 
ness of  painters.  —  Chariot  of  victory.  —  Parrot  car  in  charge  of  a  locust.  —  Fune- 
ral elegy  over  Corinua's  parrot.  —  Cupid  as  charioteer  for  his  mother's  swan  team. 

—  Lion  and  tiger  team  managed  by  Love.  —  Griffin  and  butterfly,  typifying  strength 
and  weakness.  —  Mixed  team.  —  Apollo's  car  and  griffin  team.  —  Plostellum  from 
Ilerculaneum.  —  Minerva  mounts  her  car  as  "the  slayer  of  heroic  men."  —  Love 
with  a  swan-necked  car.  —  Diana's  deer  team.  —  Goat  team  from  the  Temple  of 
the  Dioscuri.  —  Bigas  from  Herculaneum.  —  Ludicrous  chariot-race.  —  Plaustrura. 

—  Pompeiian  wine-wagon.  —  Pompeiian  carriage-road.  —  Carroccio  of  the  Lom- 
bards.—  Italian  cochio.  —  Neapolitan  sedans  and  carriages  in  immense  numbers. 

—  The  calesso Pages  183-199 

CHAPTEE    VII. 

Obiental.  —  Chinese  sedan  traveling.  —  Cab.  —  Chinese  carriage  drawings,  by  a 
native  artist. —'Single  omnibus  in  the  empire. — Japanese  jin-eik-sha.  —  Indian 
hecca.  —  Gujerat  village-cart  — Bullock  transit  carriage.  —  Travel  in  India.  —  Car 
of  Juggernaut.  —  Scythian  movable  houses.  —  Tartar  cart.  —  Singular  Scythian 
funeral  rites.  —  Tartar  cart  music Pages  200-209 

CHAPTEE    VIII. 

French.  —  What  nation  invented  coaches?  —  How  were  they  introduced  into  Europe? 
Citizens'  wives  forbidden  to  use  carriages.  —  Oldest  Gallic  vehicle  extant.  —  En- 
trance of  Queen  Isabella  into  Paris  in  a  litter.  —  Horse-litters.  —  Charles  VI 
views  his  Queen  enter  Paris  sitting  on  his  horse.  —  Tardiness  of  art  in  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries.  —  A  royal  cart.  —  Close  carriage  of  Frederic  III.  — 
Three  first  carriage-owners  in  France.  —  Queen  of  Navarre  enters  Aniien-s  in  a 
litter,  her  husband  riding  "a  goodly  genet."  — The  still  mooted  question  is, 
"Where  did  coaches  originate?  —  Coach  of  Henry  IV,  and  his  assassination  therein. 

—  Men  ashamed  of  coaches.  —  Picardy  cart.  —  Twin  coach-bodies.  —  Parisian  fia- 
cres. —  Omnibuses.  —  Round  coaches  —  Musee  de  Cluny  collection.  —  Antique 
phaeton.  —  Corbillai-d.  —  Carriages  works  of  taste,  probably  caprice.  —  Carocli, 
berime,  chariot,  diligence,  chaise,  and  brouette.  —  Boxed-up  wives.  —  Ancient 
carrosse.  —  Patents:  Simon's,  for  hanging  off  bodies;  Grobert's,  for  relieving 
horses ;  Leclerq  &  Crombette's  carriage-head ;  Avril's  triolet  and  Tellier's  non- 
upsetting  vehicle.  —  Monocycle.  —  Smuggler's  trick.  —  Char-a-banc  adopted  from 
the  Swiss.  —  Vis-a-vis,  tapissiere,  dog-cart,  brouette,  boguet,  coupe,  demi-caleche, 
braeck,  wicker  phaeton,  mylord,  landau,  caleche,  and  pompe      .       Pages  210-24:7 

CHAPTEE    IX. 

English.  —  Caesar  on  landing  is  opposed  by  chariots.  —  Queen  Boadicea.  —  Covina  and 
esseda.  —  Relics  of  British  scythe-chariots  from  battle-fields.  —  Anglo-Saxon  char- 
iot. —  Hammock  wheel-bed.  —  Anglo-Saxon  carts.  —  Horse-litters.  —  Chares.  — 
Whirlicote.  —  Long- wagons.  —  Chariots.  —  Carriages  at  coronations.  —  Coaches 
before  Queen  Elizabeth's  time.  —  Queen  Elizabeth's  coaches.  —  Cost  of  coaches.  — 
The  knight  and  his  trumpet.  —  Coaches  satirized.  —  Stage-coaches  introduced.— 
Fyne  Morrison's  journal.  —  Buckingham's  coach-and-six.  —  Taylor's  diatribe.— 
Capt.  Bailey's  hackney-coaches.  —  Coaches'  overthrow.  —  Sedans.  —  Dispute  be- 


O  TABLE   OF  CO]}f TENTS. 

tween  Coach  and  Sedan,  witli  a  Beere-cart  moderator.  —  Polyglot  inventor.  — 
Coach  pictures  for  ladies'  faces.  —  Post-chaises.  —  Coach-springs.  —  More  litters. 

—  Glass  windows.  —  Flying  coaches.  —  Lover  of  his  Country  versus  Stage-coaches, 

—  Bad  roads.  —  Coach-makers'  arms.  —  Boyle's  soliloquy. — Earl  Daruley's  char- 
iot. —  Bill  Jingle's  coach  for  hooped  ladies.  — Tattler  versus  Coaches  and  Chaises. 

—  Queen  Anne  in  state  to  St.  Paul's.  ~  Sedan  chariot.  —  Gay's  trivia.  —  Aristo- 
cratic carriages.  —  "  Old  Chariot's  "  chariot.  —  Sedan-cart.  —  "Unpleasantness  " 
between  a  lord  and  a  lady's  chairmen.  —  Taxing  coaches.  — Friction  annihilated.  — 

—  Gigs.  —  Patent  coaches.  —  Tale  of  an  antiquary.  —  Hogarth's  stage-coach.  — 
Lord  Mayor's  coach  and  show.  —  Brouette.  —  High-fliers.  —  State-coach.  —  Flying 
machines.  —  Barouche.  —  Streets  of  London  and  coach  obstructions.  —  Embryo 
omnibus.  —  Cummings  on  wheels.  —  Lord  Chancellor  of  Ireland's  coach.  —  Col- 
linge's  axles.  —  Road  protector,  —  Combined  cart  and  wagon.  —  Brights  and  blacks. 

—  Feeing  coachmen.  —  Town  and  country  coaches.  —  Crane-neck  coach.  —  Landau. 

—  Sociable.  —  Post-chaise.  —  Town  chariot.  —  Laudaulet.  —  Sulky.  —  Phaetons,  a 
variety.  —  Umbrella  sociable.  —  Curricles.  —  Whiskies. —Builders'  lease  of  car- 
riages, —  Traders'  naughty  tricks.  —  Coach  and  post-chariot,  1805.  —  Jaunting- 
car. —  Barouche,  1805.  —  Telegraph  buggy. — Elliott's  inventions.  —  Detachment 
of  horses  from  carriages.  —  Stanhope,  Tilbury,  and  curricle  phaeton.  —  Acker- 
man's  axle.  —  Britzscha  chariot,  —  First  English  railway  coach.  —  Charvolant.  — 
Traveling  coach,  traveling,  composite,  and  post  chariot.  —  Alliterative  literature. 

—  Cabriolets,  omnibuses,  gigs,  Dennets,  mail-phaetons,  and  Hansom's  cab.  — • 
Equirotal  carriages,  Broughams,  Clarences,  sovereign,  and  basterna  coaches, 
Harvey's  cabriolet,  pony,  dog-cart,  sporting  phaeton,  wagonette,  improved  Han- 
som, family  omnibus,  coupe,  open  town  barouche,  and  Elcho  sociable  landau.  — 
Display  in  Hyde  Park Pages  248-389 

CHAPTER    X, 

Northern  European.  —  Russian  vehicles.  —  Droschke,  kibitka,  and  tarenta  described. 

—  Norwegian  cariole  and  travel.  —  Danish  Holsteiu-vogue.  —  English  coach  in 
Sweden.  —  German  karen  and  duchess's  wedding-present     .        .      Pages  390-395 

CIIAPTEE    XI. 

Americ-IN.  —  Litters  of  the  aborigines,  —  Colonist  wheelwrights.  —  English  carriages 
in  America.  —  Carmen's  contempt  for  aldermanic  ordinances.  —  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  post.  — John  Clapp  keeps  a  hack  for  hire.  — Albanian  ordinance  regu- 
lating "slees  and  horses."  —  Removal  of  posts  from  the  Broadway.  —  New  York 
and  Boston  post.  —  Skelton's  and  Carpenter's  chairs.  —  Importation  of  chaises.  — 
James  Hallett's  cards.  —  New  York  City  amusements.  —  Jolin  Butler's  "waggon" 
and  the  Bordentowu  stage.  — Philadelphia  and  Annapolis  stage.  —Flying  machine. 

—  Improvised  hacks.  —  Mrs.  Shoemaker's  Recollections.  —  Curricles.  —  New  York 
coach-owners.  —  Burning  of  Colden's  coach.  —  The  Deanes  from  Dublin. — New 
York  and  Boston  stage.  —  Pennsylvanian  carriage-owners  and  carriage-builders. 

—  Travel  in  Revolutionary  times.  — Importation  forbidden.  — Washington's  coach. 

—  Henry's  coat-of-arms.  —  McGowan's  sledge.  —  Coach-makers'  procession.  — 
New  York  carriage-makers. ^Powell's  coach.  —  Tax  on  carriages.  —  Early  trav- 
eling. —  Chaises.  —  Beginning  of  carriage-making  in  Newark,  Albany,  etc.  —  Early 
carriage-makers  in  New  York  City.  —  Country  wagons  and  sleighs.  —  Parker  chal- 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.  9 

lenges  Quick. — Volantes.  —  Parker's  "blower."  —  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey 
carriage-makers  stigmatized  as  tlaieves.  —  Buggies,  gigs,  phaetons,  and  cliariotees. 

—  Tlie  accommodation  and  public  sociable  early  passenger  vehicles  in  New  York. 

—  Barouches,  traveling-coach,  coachee,  dickey-seat  phaeton,  traveling  chariot, 
double  Stanhope,  Newark  buggy,  cabriolet,  sulky,  and  omnibus.  —  Street-car. — 
Stage-drivers'  bad  conduct.  —  Parker's  vehicles.  —  Butchers'  carts,  express  and 
business  wagons,  cabs,  llockaways.  Southern  coach. — Perch-couplings.  —  Clip 
king-bolts. — Jenny  Lind,  physician's  phaeton,  square  buggy,  road  sulky.  —  Strat- 
tou's  patent  mail-axle.  —  Concord  and  New  Rochelle  wagons.  — Fentou  Rockaway, 
pony-cart  and  phaeton,  gentleman's  road  bugg3^  —  Six-seat  and  cut-under  llocka- 
way.  —  Clarence,  cabriolet,  caleche,  phaetons,  demi-landau,  coupe,  coupe-Rocka- 
way,  Clarence,  landau.  —  Velocipedes.  —  Trade  statistics  .         Pages  396-467 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Supplemental.  —  Carriages  in  the  American  Centennial  Exhibition,  French,  English, 
American.  —  Commissioner's  report.  —  M.  Guiet's  remarks  on  Centennial  carriages. 

—  Carriage-builders'  national  association.  — Col.  Delancey  Kane's  drag. 

Pages   468-482 

Index Pages  483-488 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

An   Outside  Bakbakian  among  the 

Celestials Frontispiece. 

Initial  Word  to  Preface    ....      3 

Actiior's  Autograph 4 

Egyptian   Hunting    Scene   and   Ini- 
tial M 17 

Primitive  Sledge 18 

Primitive  Sledge-wagon 19 

Aristotle's  SvcTALiE 19 

An    Egyptian  Funeral  Cortege. — 
The  Undertaker  comes  for  the 

Body 24 

Egyptian  Sledge-hearse 26 

Elegant  Sledge-hearse 26 

An   Egyptian    Funeral    Cortege.  — 

The  Body  carried  to  the  Tomb     27 
Wagon   and   Boat   from    a   Mummy- 
Bandage    30 

Surrender  or  an  Enemy  to  Menep- 

thah  I.  —  Temple  of  Karnak  .     .31 
The  Vi&torious  Menepthah  I  on  the 

Homeward  March 32 

Egyptian  Whips 33 

Whip  suspended  from  the  Wrist    .    34 
Triumphal    Procession    of    Menep- 
thah I  — Temple  of  Karnak  .     .     35 
Rameses  II  IN  Battle.  —  From   Bei- 

TUALLi,  IN  Nubia 36 

Egyptian  IIorse-blanket 37 

Egyptian  Yoke 38 

Captured  Carts  of  the  Tokkari    .     38 
Rameses  III  in  his  Chariot.  —  Bass- 
relief  from  a  Temple  at  Aboo- 

SIMBEL 40 

Fully  equipped  War-chariot  ...     42 
Menepthah  III  marching  against  an 
Enemy.  —  From  Medeenet  Haboo    44 

Egyptian  Baggage-cart 46 

Menepthah   III   proceeding  to  the 
Temple  of  Amun.Medeenet  Haboo    47 


PAGE 

Egyptian  Hunting-chariot   ....  50 
Rameses  IV  conducting  Captives  to 

the  Temple  of  Amun 52 

Battle-scene   from   the  Temple  of 

Luxor 54 

Chariot  op  the  Rot-u-n 55 

Egyptian  Plaustrum 56 

Chariot  from  the  Florentine  Mu- 
seum    57 

Ancient  Egy-ptian  Wheel    ....  57 

Spoke 58 

Wooden  Tire 59 

Completed  Chariot-wheel   ....  60 

Fragment  op  Shafts 60 

Chariot  End  Rave 61 

Chariot  Side  Rave 61 

Rimming  a  Wheel 65 

Bending    the    Timber   for   a   War- 
chariot  66 

Making  the  Pole  and  other  Parts 

OF  the  Chariot 66 

Binding  or  trimming  a  Ciiaeiot-body  68 

Initial  Letter  F 69 

The    King    op   Assyria   crossing   a 
River  in  Pursuit  op  an  Enemy. 

NiMROUD 71 

Assyrian  War-chariot. — Nimroud  .  73 
Assyrian   Treaty  of   Peace  — Nim- 
roud    76 

'Assyrian  Lion-hunter  — Nimroud   .  78 
Assyrian    Warriors    in    Battle.  — 

Khorsabad 80 

Eunuch  with  Horses 81 

The  King's  Chair  borne  by  Eunuchs. 

—  Khorsabad 83 

Chariot  captured  by  the  Assyrians. 

—  Khorsabad §■* 

Chariot  and  Charioteer  of  Senna- 
cherib IN  waiting  before  Lachish. 

—  Kouyunjik 86 


12 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTEATIONS. 


Sennacherib  in  his  Chariot  before 
Lachisii.  — From  A  Bass-relief  in 
THE  British  Museum 

Supposed  Jewish  Captives  in  a 
Cart 

Supposed  Susianian  Mule-team  .    . 

Elamitish  Cart  in  the  Service  of 
Assyrian  Soldiers  

Mule-team  and  Party  at  Eest  .    . 

Xerxes  orders  the  Sea  chastised 
(Initial  A) 

Chariot  from  the  Ruins  of  Persep- 
OLis 94 


93 


Chariot  from  Niebuhr 

Another  Chariot  from  the  Euins 

OF  Persepolis 

Supposed  Persian  Chariot  from  the 

Lyons  Collection 

Persian  Idol-car 

Persian  Scythe-chariot 

Ancient  Scythe-chariot  Wheels. — 

From  Scheffer   

Gallican  Covinus.  —  From  Ginzrot 
Scythe-wagon  by  a  Modern  Inventor 
Ancient    Scythe-wagon.  —  From   a 

Eare  Print 

Persian  Harmamaxa 

Alexander's  Funeral  Car  ... 
Interior  View  of  Alexander's  Fu 

NERAL  Car    

Persian  Farmer's  Cart   . 
Chariot  Race  (Initial  I) 

DiPHRON      

Grecian  Chariot  .... 
Grecian  Chariot,  a  Trophy  to  Rome 
Side  View  of  Grecian  Chariot 
Chariot  from  the  Pediment  of  the 

Partiieon 

Ancient  Grecian  Racing  Chariot 
Eos,  Goddess  of  the  Morning 
Horses  guided  by  a  Staff 
Grecian  Wain,  from  a  Vase 
Wak-chariot  of  Mars.     , 
Grecian  Lady's  Quadrig 
Grecian  Lady's  Biga  . 
Etruscan  Biga     .    .    .    , 
Initial  Letter  L     .     .    . 
Carpentum,  Temp.  Caligula 
Carpentum,  Temp.  Domitian 


95 


104 
104 
105 

106 
111 
113 

114 
115 
116 
118 
119 
120 
121 

123 
126 
129 
130 
131 
132 
133 
135 
136 
137 
139 
139 


PAGE 

Carpentum.  —  Carrying     off    the 

Bride 140 

Carpentum  Pompaticum 142 

The  Pilentum 143 

CisiUM 144,  145 

Monachus 146 

Roman  Post  Birotum 147 

Arcera 148 

The  Carrus 149 

Carrus  for  Liquids 151 

Carrus  Clabularius 152 

IIay-plaustrum 154 

Roman  Wine-cart 154 

Plostellum 156 

The  Curriculus 157 

Roman  Chariot 159 

Front  View  of  Roman  Chariot     .  160 

Roman  Yokes 160 

Circus  Chariot 161 

Roman  Coliseum  and  its  Surround- 
ings    163 

Racing  Quadriga 165 

An  Upset  Quadriga 166 

Chariot  and  Tigers 168 

Chariot  and  Gazelles 169 

TRIU3IPH  OF  Titus 172 

Portion  of  a  Funeral  Cortege     .  173 

Two-wheeled  Riieda 174 

Military  or  State  Rheda  ....  176 
Hungarian  Carriage. — After  Ginz- 
rot    177 

The  Carruca 178 

The  Benna 179 

Roman  Carriage-fart 180 

Curricle-bar  and  Horses   (Initial 

C) 183 

Victory. — Pompeii 184 

Parrot  Biga.  —  Pompeii 185 

Swan  Car.  — Pompeii 186 

Mixed  Team.  —  Pompeii 187 

Biga  and  Griffin, — Pompeii.    .    .  187 

Car  OF  Apollo.  —  Herculaneum     •  188 

Plostellum.  —  Herculaneum  ...  188 

Minerva's  Chariot — Herculaneum  189 

Mule-car.  —  Pompeii 190 

Car  of  Diana.  —  Pompeii     ....  190 
Female  Goats  and  Chariot.  — Pom- 
peii    191 

Male  Goats  and  Chariot.— Pompeii,  191 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTBATIONS. 


13 


PAGE 

SlIE-GCATS    AND    ClIARIOT.  POMPEII  192 

BicJA. —  Hercdlaneum 193 

JvACING-CIIARIOT. HeECULANEUJI        .  193 

Grotesque  Chaeiot-race. —  Pompeii  194 

The  Plaustrum.  — Herculaneum    .  194 

"VVike-wagox.  —  Pompeii 195 

Italian  Cochio 197 

Neapolitan  Sedan 198 

Chinese  Cart  (Initial  A)   .     .    .     .  200 

KoYAL  Cart,  by  a  Chinese  Artist  201 

Coachman  or  the  Emperor  of  China  202 

Indian  Hecca 203 

Gujerat  Village-cart 204 

Scythian  House  on  Wheels   .    .    .  207 

Tartar  Cart 203 

Prencii  Diligence  (Initial  T)    .    .  210 

Ancient  Flemish  Carriage     .    .     .  212 
Litter.  —  Isabella's  Entrance  into 

Paris 213 

French  Horse-litter 214 

French  State  Chariot 216 

Coach  of  Henry  IV  of  France.    .  217 

Picardy  Cart 218 

Ancient  Twin  Carriage-bodies  .     .219 

Parisian  Fiacre 220 

Ancient  Coach,  1GG7 221 

Antique  Phaeton 223 

French  Corbillard 224 

The  Coach  (Fr.  Caroch),  1771    .     .  226 

The  Berline 227 

Chariot 228 

Diligence 228 

Chaise 229 

Beouette 23p 

Ancient  Carrosse-body 232 

Simon's  Patent 234 

Grobert's  Patent  Cabriolet  .    .    .  235 

Extension  Head  for  Carriages     .  236 

Avril's  Triolet 236 

Tellier's  Patent  Safety  Carriage  237 

monocycle 237 

Char-a-banc 239 

Vis-\-vis 239 

Tapissiere 240 

French  Dog-cart 241 

Boguet 241 

Coupe 242 

DliMI-CALECHE 242 

Braeck 244 


PAGE 

Wicker  Phaeton 245 

Mylord 245 

Single-horse  Landau 24G 

Feench  Caleche 247 

PoMPE 247 

Scroll  and  Initial  V 248 

British  Covina,  with   Implements 

OF  Warfare 250 

British  Essedum 252 

EssEDUM.  —  After  Ginzeot  .    .    .    .  252 

Feagment  of  a  Wheel 253 

Saxon  Chaeiot 254 

Hammock  Carriage 25.5 

Anglo-Saxon  Cart 256 

Anglo-Saxon  Truck 257 

Cart,  with  Anglo-Saxon  Harvest- 
scene     257 

Horse-litter  of  the  Time  of  Ed- 
ward III 25e 

Long-wagon    of    the     Fourteenth 

Century 261 

Queen  Elizabeth's  Coach,  IIippon, 

Maker -.26^ 

Queen  Elizabeth's  French  Coach  .  266 
Queen  Elizabeth's  Coaches. — From 

Hoefnagel's  Print 267 

English  Coach  of  1616 271 

Tayloe's  AVoeld  on  Wheels  .     .    •  273 

Sedan  of  1635 293 

Coach  of  1635 294 

hoesb-littee 299 

CoACH-MAKEEs'  Aems,  1667     ....  306 

COACH-AND-SiX  OF   1688 307 

Coach  of  1696.  —  Feom   a  Peint  in 

THE  British  Museum 303 

Chariot  of  the  Earl  of  Darnley  309 

State  Coach  of  1713 311 

Sedan  Chariot  of  1713  - 312 

Carriage    of    the   Aristocracy  — 

Temp.  Georges  I  and  II      .    .     .  314 

Sedan-cart 315 

English  Sedan-chair,  1750  ....  317 

English  Private  Coach,  1750.    .    .  318 

English  Gig,  1754 319 

English  Stage-coach,  1755  ....  321 

English  Beouette 325 

English  High-flier  Phaeton      .    .  325 

State-coach  of  England,  1762     .    .  326 

English  Barouche,  1767 329 


14 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATION'S. 


PAGE 

Cylindrical  Wheel 331 

Coned  Wheel 332 

Coach  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  op 

Ireland 332 

KoAD  Protector,  1796 333 

Cart  and  Wagon  combined,  1797    .  334 

Town  Coach,  1796 33G 

Traveling  Coach,  1796 337 

Crane-neck  Coach,  1796 338 

English  Landau,  1796 .     .     .     .    .     .  338 

Town  Chariot 339 

Landaulet,  1796 340 

Chariot,  1796 341 

Phaeton,  1796 342 

Pony  Phaeton 342 

Sociable 344 

Curricle  Proper 345 

New-pattern  Curricle 346 

Gig  Curricle 347 

Caned  Whisky 343 

Grasshopper-chaise  Whisky  .     .    .  343 

Coach,  1805 353 

Post-chariot,  1805 353 

Improved  Curricle 354 

Jaunting-car,  1805 354 

Barouche,  1805 357 

Telegraph,  1805 358 

0.  Elliott's  Chariot,  1805  ....  359 

Stanhope  Gig 360 

Tilbury 3G1 

Tilbury  Spring.  —  Rear  View   .    .  361 

Curricle  Phaeton 362 

Ackerman's  Movable  Axle     .    .     .  362 

Post-chaise,  1825 363 

Britzscha  Chariot 363 

First  English  Railway  Coach  .     .  364 

ViNEY  &  Pocock's  Charvolant   .    .  365 

Traveling  Chariot 366 

Continental  Traveling  Coach  .    .  366 

Composite  Chariot 367 

Post-chariot,  1829 367 

Private  Cabriolet 369 

EiRST  English  Omnibus,  1829.    .    .  370 

English  Gig,  1830 371 

Cab  Dennet 371 

Cabriolet 372 

Mail-phaeton 372 

Hansom's  Cab 373 

Adams's  Equirotal  Phaeton  .    .    .  375 


VL    C) 


Co 
niti 


Adams's  Equirotal  Omnibus 

English  Brougham  . 
Clarence  Coach  .     . 
Sovereign     .... 
Basterna  Coach  .    . 
Harvey's  Cabriolet 
Pony  (Victoria)  Phaeton 
Shamrock  Dog-cart 
Sporting  Phaeton   .     , 
English  Wagonette    . 
Improved  Hansom  Cab 
Gentleman's  Family  Omnibus 
English  Coupe      .    .    . 
Open  Town  Barouche 
Elcho  Sociable  Landau 
Russian  Droschkb  (Init 
Norwegian  Cariole     . 
German  Karen     .    .     . 
Duchess  op  Lothringen 
Drive  in  Central  Park  ( 
Sleigh  op  1783      .     .    . 
The  Powell  Coach 
The  Chair  of  1790  .    . 
Country  Pleasure-wagon 
Early  American  Sleigh 
Albany  Sleigh 
American  Stage-coach 
Spanish  Vol  ante      .    , 
American  Buggy,  1826 
Fan-tailed  Gig     .     .     . 
Slat-side  Phaeton  . 
Gig  Chariotee      .     . 
American  Chariotee 
The  Accommodation 
Public  Sociable  ,    . 
American  Barouche 
C-spRiNG  Barouche  . 
American  Traveling 
C-spRiNG  Coachee     . 
Dickey-seat  Phaeton 
Traveling  Chariot 
Double  Stanhope     . 
Carter's  Newark  Bug 
American  Cabriolet 

Sulky   

Brower's  Omnibus    . 
American  Street-car 
American  Clarence 
Parker's  Coachee    . 


830 


COAC 


W) 


PAGE 

375 
376 
376 
377 
377 
378 
379 
381 
381 
383 
385 
386 
387 
387 
389 
390 
393 
394 
395 
396 
413 
416 
419 
422 
423 
423 
424 
427 
429 
430 
4^31 
431 
431 
432 
432 
433 
433 
434 
434 
435 
4C5 
436 
436 
437 
437 
438 
440 
440 
441 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


15 


PAGE 

Butchek's  and  Grocer's  Cart     .     .  442 

Improved  Butcher's  Cart  ....  442 

American  Express  Wagon  ....  442 

American  Cab 443 

Phaeton 443 

Improved  Business  Wagon      .     .     .  444 

kockaway 445 

Germantown 445 

Southern  Coach  446 

Cut-under  Buggy 447 

Everett's  Perch-coupling  ....  447 

Haussknecht's  Perch-ooupling   .     .  448 

Another  IIaussknecht  Coupling    .  449 

Reynolds's  King-bolt 450 

Phelps's  King-bolt 451 

Jenny  Lind 452 

Physician's  Phaeton 452 

Square  Buggy 453 

EoAD  Sulky 453 

Stratton's  Patent  Mail-axle     .    .  454 

Mail-axle  Collar-plate 454 

Concord  Wagon 455 

New  llocHELLE  Wagon 455 

Fenton  Rockaway 456 

pony-cart 456 

Pony-phaeton 456 

Gentleman's  Road  Buggy   ....  457 

Six-seat  Rockaway 457 


PAGE 

American  Clarence 458 

Cabriolet 458 

American  Caleche 459 

Cut-under  Rockaway 460 

Modern  Omnibus 460 

Gig  Phaeton 461 

Canoe  Phaeton 461 

Demi-landau 462 

Circular-front  Coupe 462 

Improved  Scroll-spring 463 

Six-seat  Coupe-Rockaway  ....  463 
Three-quarter  Clarence    ....  464 
Frame-work    of    Hind     Carriage- 
part       464 

Bonner  Buggy 464 

Top  Buggy 465 

American  Landau 465 

American  Velocipede 466 

Gompert's  Drasina 466 

Scroll  Initial  Letter  0    .    .     .    .  468 
Million,  Guiet  &  Co.'s  Eight-spring 

Landau 469 

Peters  &  Sons'  Ladies'  Phaeton    ,  472 

Hooper  &  Co.'s  Drag 472 

Brewster    &.    Co.'s  Double-suspen- 
sion Victoria 476 

McLear  &  Kendall's  Vis-A.-vis   .     .  477 

James  Cunningham  &  Son's  Hearse  478 


THE  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 


(>  ♦>    *l'>  O 


CHAPTER    I. 

ANCIKNT    KGYPTIATST    SLEDGE-HEARSES,    CHARIOTS,    AND    CUSTOMS. 


.     .     .     "Kor  Thebes  so  much  renowned, 
"Whose  courts  with  unexhausted  wealth  abound ; 
Where  through  a  hundred  gates,  with  marble  arch. 
To  battle  twenty  thousand  chariots  march."' 

Homer's  Iliad,  B.  IX,  v.  ".84. 


A_N  differs  from  other  animals,  for 
"^  while    the    lower  orders 

roam  about  certain  dis- 
tricts in  search  of  food 
which,  when  obtained, 
satisfies  their  longings, 
he,  with  a  loftier  aml)i- 
tion,  is  unceasingly  oc- 
cupied m  the  puibuit  of  some  new  dibcoveiy  whereby  he  may  promote 
his  own  interests  and  increase  the  comforts  of  his  fellow-man. 

1  Writers  iu  later  times  tell  us  that  the  hundred  gates  spoken  of  by  Homer  ia  his 
inimitable  poem  were  only  imaginary,  the  creations  of  a  poetical  fancy.  Herodotus 
is  silent  on  this  subject;  but  Diodorus  Siculus  (Lib.  I)  says,  "Although  there  are 
some  who  say  that  it  had  not  an  hundred  gates,  yet  that  there  were  many  large 
porches  to  the  temples,  whence  the  city  was  called  'ExuTO^iTtoXog  {Hecatompylos),  a 
hundred  gates;  yet  it  was  certain  that  they  had  in  it  twenty  thousand  chariots  of 
war,  for  there  were  a  hundred  stables  all  along  the  river  [Nile]  from  Memphis  to 
Thebes."  Apuleius  ("Golden  Ass,"  Lib.  IV,  Epode  4)  mentions  the  "seven-gated 
Thebes,"  and  Ammianus  Marcellinus  ("Roman  Hist.,"  Lib.  XVII,  ch.  4,  sect.  2) 
confirms  Homer,  assuring  us  that  Thebes  was  celebrated  for  its  "  entrances  by  a 
hundred  gates."  Heyne,  in  reference  to  this  subject,  observes,  "  Numerus  centenarius 
ponitur  pro  magno :  et  portis  semel  memoratis,  muUitudo  hommum  declaratur  per 
numerum  exuntium." 
2 


18  EGYPTIAN'  WOBLB    Olf  WHEELS. 

With  a  special  object  in  view,  then,  since  walking,  the  primitive 
mode  of  locomotion,  had  been  found  tedious  and  painful,  after  experi- 
ment, he  managed  to  bring  into  subjection  assistants  from  "the  boasts 
of  the  field,"  such  as  horses,  asses,  oxen,  camels,  etc.,  for  both  burthen 
and  draught,  thus  utilizing  snch  agencies  as  were  at  command. 

One  of  the  earlier  modes  of  travel  undoubtedly  was  horseback 
riding ;  but  in  process  of  time  the  necessities,  as  well  as  the  imaginary 
wants  of  man's  nature,  greatly  multiplied.  He  very  soon  discovered 
that  horseback  conveyance  of  person  and  merchandise  was  attended 
with  serious  drawback.  Stimulated  to  activity,  his  inventive  facul- 
ties provided  a  rem- 
edy in  the  form 
of  a  sledge,!  which, 
with  various  mod- 
ifications, is  still 
employed  in  differ- 
ent portions  of  the 
globe.  This  prim- 
itive invention,  at 
first  rude  and  imperfect,  was  certainly  one  step  in  the  art  of  carriage- 
building,  since  wonderfully  improved  upon, — the  germ  of  art  be- 
queathed to  man  by  an  all-wise  Creator  having  in  the  course  of  time 
produced  an  abundant  harvest. 

As  art  progressed,  it  required  but  little  reflection  to  foresee  that, 
by  placing  this  sledge  upon  rollers,  much  of  the  difficulty  originally 
encountered  would  thereby  be  overcome,  and  an  increased  weight 
moved  by  the  same  force  with  more  ease.  This  important  discovery, 
effected  l>y  exchanging  the  rubbing  motion  of  the  sledge  for  the  rolling 
motion  of  a  cylinder,  whether  accidental  or  the  studied  invention  of 
some  early  mechanic,  is  of  very  little  consequence  now. 

'  In  Europe,  sledge  is  the  name  applied  to  a  low  kind  of  cart,  but  in  America  the 
word  has  been  abbreviated  to  sled  or  changed  to  sleigh,  which  in  either  case  involves 
the  idea  that  a  sliding  vehicle  is  meant.  In  the  rural  districts,  the  farmer  employs  a 
machine  we  call  a  stone-sledge.  This  is  commonly  made  from  a  plank,  the  flat  under 
surface  of  which  is  forced  along  the  surface  of  the  ground  by  ox-power.  Its  chief 
advantages  are,  it  is  the  more  easily  loaded  with  the  heavier  stone.  In  this,  as  in  many 
other  cases,  brutal  man  has  transferred  his  burthen  to  the  dumb  animal,  which  has  not 
the  power  to  complain.  This  is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  power  of  knowledge  over 
stupidity  and  ignorance  ever  since. 


Primitive    SiiEDGE. 


INCIPIENCY  OF   VEHICULAB  ART. 


19 


On  the  walls  of  a  temple  at  Luxor,  in  Thebes,  is  seen  an  early 
representation  of  the  sledge,  connected  with  the  germs  of  an  improve- 
ment.    A  reduced  copy  is  here  given.     It  exhibits  a  sledge  elevated 


Primitive 


Iledge-Wagon. 


upon  two  logs,  constituting  what  may  appropriately  be  called  an 
inceptive  sledge-wagon.  These  logs  were  undoubtedly  suggestive  of 
the  common  axle  since  in  use.  The  original  mechanic  needed  only  to 
secure  these  logs  to  the  superincumbent  structure,  .shape  the  ends 
into  journals,  fitted  to  a  hul),  when  everything,  for  a  practical  use, 
would  be  complete.  Timber  for  the  axle-tree  was  already  at  hand  ; 
so  was  the  material  for  the  wheels.  These  wheels  were  probably  at 
first  nothing  more  than  what  are  now  designated  "pauc-wheels,"^  cut 
transversely  from  the  tree,  having  a  hole  made  in  the  center  for  an 
axle-tree,  such  as  are  still  applied  to  the  carts  of  less  civilized  people 
in  modern  times. 

Although  no  mechanic  of  modern  times  agrees  with  him,  yet  it  has 
been  claimed  by  Aristotle 
that  the  syctalcE  has  many 
advantages     over      carts  ^- 
with   axles    and    wheels, 

arguing  that  an  axis  im-  ^l"lhl'lll|l| 

pedes    the    progress    of 
wheel-vehicles    by    pres- 
sure on  the  hub.     As  an  example  of   early  theoretical   science,  this 
idea  has  some  interest  taken  in  connection  with  our  subject. 


Aristotle's    Syctal^. 


'  Pauc-wheels  were  originally  so  called  because  iu  a  side  view  they  resembled  the 
head  of  a  drum.     Specimens  will  be  seen  on  some  of  our  Roman  carts. 


20  EGYPTIAN   WOELD    ON  WHEELS. 

No  student  of  the  Bible  but  believes  that  carriage-building  had  its 
rise  in  Egypt,  notwithstanding  that  profane  authors  have  since  claimed 
that  Ethiopia  furnished  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  with  the  rudiments 
of  her  architecture  in  common  with  Nubia  and  India.  In  those  old 
countries  are  still  found  numerous  excavations  in  the  rock,  of  immense 
extent,  furnished  with  colossal  figures,  vast  masses  of  building  raised 
from  the  earth,  with  a  profusion  of  carving  and  statuary,  besides 
shrines  worked  in  a  single  stone,  —  the  whole  of  these  achievements 
on  a  scale  of  such  vast  extent  and  magnificence,  the  apparent  results 
of  such  wondrous  physical  or  mechanical  power,  that  we  are  disposed 
to  think  of  the  giants  who  are  said  to  have  lived  previous  to  the  flood, 
rather  than  of  men  of  ordinary  stature,  as  the  authors  of  all  these 
magnificent  works. 

"No  people,"  says  Champollion,  "either  ancient  or  modern,  con- 
ceived the  art  of  architecture  on  so  sublime  a  scale  as  the  ancient 
Egyptians.  Their  conceptions  were  those  of  men  an  hundred  feet 
high ;  and  the  imagination,  which  in  Europe  rises  far  above  our 
porticoes,  sinks  abashed  at  the  foot  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty 
columns  of  the  hypostyle  hall  at  Karnak."  ^ 

'  An  hypostyle  hall  is  one  supported  by  and  resting  upon  pillars,  while  the  peristyle 
is  one  having  pillars  running  around  it.  The  group  of  ruins  known  by  the  name  of 
Karnali  lay  one  and  a  half  miles  northeast  of  those  at  Luxor,  and  about  one  half  mile 
from  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Nile.  The  chief  portion  of  the  ruins  stand  on  artificial 
elevations,  which  are  inclosed  within  walls  about  three  miles  in  circuit.  Among  these 
ruins  stands  the  great  temple  from  which  many  of  our  illustrations  are  taken,  the 
temple  itself  surpassing  in  grandeur  any  other  in  Thebes.  This  structure  has  no  less 
than  twelve  entrances  and  numerous  gateways  adorned  with  finished  hieroglyphics. 
The  great  hall  in  this  edifice  is  three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  feet  long  and  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  feet  wide,  the  columns  supporting  the  ceilings  standing  in  nine  par- 
allel rows,  sixty-six  feet  high  and  nine  feet  in  diameter.  This  temple  is  very  ancient, 
the  name  of  Osirtessen  I,  who  ruled  when  Joseph  visited  Egypt  {circa  B.  C.  1740), 
being  recorded  on  its  walls.  The  seat  of  government  was  changed  from  Lower 
Egypt  to  Memphis,  but  succeeding  monarchs  continued  to  make  additions  to  the 
records  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  many  years  afterwards.  The  great  hypostyle  hall 
is  supposed  to  have  been  built  by  llameses  I,  some  fifteen  centuries  before  Christ. 
The  sculptures  on  the  exterior  of  the  walls  are  cut  in  the  same  kind  of  bass-relief  as 
those  at  Luxor. 

For  seventeen  centuries  prior  to  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Persians  (B.  C.  525), 
it  was  governed  chiefly  by  independent  native  sovereigns,  who  are  supposed  to  liave 
ruled  contemporaneously  over  difierent  portions  of  the  country.  Few,  indeed,  are  the 
records  we  possess  of  the  many  interesting  events  that  must  have  occurred  during 
her  existence.     Such  as  have  come  down  to  us  are  as  follows  :  The  arrival  of  Joseph 


EGYPTIAN  AGE   OF  GREATEST  PBOSPERITY.  21 

Although  the  Assyrian  empire  was  founded  fifteen  years  earlier  than 
the  Egyptian,  j^et  it  is  to  the  latter  we  must  accord  pre-eminence  in 
chariot-building  as  well  as  in  many  other  arts.  According  to  history, 
the  most  prosperous  age  was  that  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
dynasties  of  Theban  monarchs,  to  which  age  Manetho  assigns  the  most 
prosperous  period  in  Egyptian  art.  Eameses  II  (Amunmai  Eameses, 
as  his  name  is  read  in  hieroglyphics,  and  Eameses  Miamum,  according 
to  Manetho) ,  now  called  Eameses  the  Great,  was  the  most  renowned 
monarch  that  ever  ruled  over  Egypt.  He  is  supposed  to  be  identical 
with  the  far-famed  Sesostris  of  the  Greek  writers,  his  name  beinjr 
found  more  frequently  on  the  monuments  of  Thebes,  and  indeed 
throughout  Egypt,  than  that  of  any  other  king,  there  being  few 
remains  of  any  city  where  it  is  not  seen.  He  is  supposed  to  have 
flourished  B.  C.  1500. 

Thus  much  we  have  thought  it  necessary  to  say  by  way  of  introduc- 
tion to  the  important  as  well  as  interesting  history  of  vehicular  art, 
connected  with  the  designs  we  reproduce  on  a  reduced  scale  from  the 
catacombs^  and  other  monuments  of  antiquity. 


in  the  reign  of  Osirtessen  I  (B.  C.  1740),  mentioned  in  Gen.,  ch.  sxxviii;  tlie  journey 
of  Abraham  thither,  "when  a  famine  prevailed  over  all  the  land,"  as  recorded  in 
Gen.,  ch.  xi;  the  birth  of  Moses  (B.  C.  1571)  during  the  reign  of  Eameses,  supposed 
to  have  been  the  new  king  "who  knew  not  Joseph"  (Exod.,  ch.  i,  v.  8)  ;  the  flight  of 
Moses  (B.  C.  1531),  related  in  the  second  chapter  of  Exodus  ;  the  exodus  of  the  Israel- 
ites from  Egypt  (Exod  ,  ch.  xii;  B.  C.  1491) ;  the  marriage  of  Solomon  with  Pharaoh's 
daughter  (1  Ivings,  ch.  iii,  v.  1 ;  B.  C.  1014)  ;  the  invasion  of  Judtea  by  Shishak 
■(2  Chron.,  ch.  xii,  v.  2;  B.  C.  971)  or  Sheshonk,  as  it  stands  in  hieroglj'phics  on  the 
monuments  still  extant  (this  king  came  up  to  Jerusalem  with  twelve  hundred  chariots 
and  threescore  thousand  horsemen,  despoiling  the  temple  of  its  sacred  treasures) ;  the 
defeat  and  slaying  of  Josiah,  king  t)f  Judah,  in  the  valley  of  Megiddo,  by  Pharaoh 
Nechoh  —  Necho  on  the  monuments  (2  Kings,  ch.  xxiii,  vs.  29,  30;  B.  C.  623);  the 
capture  of  Sidon  by  Pharaoh  Ilophra  (Ezek.,  ch.  xxx,  v.  24;  Herodotus  II,  1G1-1G9; 
B.  C.  595)  ;  and  the  subsequent  defeat  of  this  monarch  in  an  expedition  against  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, king  of  Babylon  (B.  C.  570). 

'  The  catacombs  are  thus  described  by  a  classical  author:  "  Sunt  et  sja-inges  sub- 
terranei  quidam  et  flexuosi  secessus,  quos  (ut  fertur)  periti  vitum  vetustorum  adven- 
tare  diluvium  praescii  metuentesque  ne  ceremoniarum  obliteraretur  memoria,  penitus 
operosis  digestos  fodinis,  per  loca  diversa  struxerunt;  et  excisis  parietibus,  volu- 
crum  ferarumque  genera  multa  sculpseruut,  et  animalium  species  innumeras  multas, 
quas  hieroglyphicas  literas  appellarunt,  Latiuis  ignorabiles."  —  Ammianiis  Ilarcellimis, 
B.  XXII.  (  Translation.  —  There  are  certain  underground  excavations  made  in  different 
places,  with  winding  retreats,  wherein  it  is  said  men  skillful  in  ancient  mysteries  divine 
the  coming  of  a  flood,  lest  the  memory  of  all  their  sacred  ceremonies  might  be  lost. 


22  EGYPTIAN    WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

Among  the  aucieiits,  particularly  among  the  Egyptians,  the  death 
of  a  relative  or  friend  was  an  event  of  the  greatest  and  most  solemn 
importance.  All  the  kindred  and  friends  of  the  deceased  quitted  their 
usual  employments,  let  their  hair  grow  both  on  the  head  and  face, 
although  until  then  accustomed  to  shave,  put  on  mourning  from  forty 
to  seventy  days,  according  to  the  rank  of  the  deceased,  abstaining  from 
wine,  baths,  and  luxuries  of  every  kind.i 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  was  an  important  tenet  in  Egyptian 
theology.2  By  them  sepulchers  of  the  most  substantial  description 
were  constructed  for  holding  the  body  after  the  spirit  had  fled,  with 
what  success  time  has  shown.  Many  of  these  were  vast  underground 
repositories  in  which  thousands  in  a  mummified  state  have  slept  for 
centuries,  awaiting  the  return  of  the  "living  principle"  to  reanimate  it. 
In  these  subterranean  palaces,  on  the  walls,  in  bass-relief,  have  been 
preserved,  in  their  original  state,  the  records  of  those  ancient  times. 
These,  which  are  the  fruit  of  modern  research,  will  assist  us  in  giving 
with  correctness  many  incidents  not  hitherto  presented  to  the  world 
in  connection  with  carriages. 

On  the  walls,  deeply  chiseled,  they  have  cut  several  kinds  of  beasts  and  birds,  with 
countless  other  figures  of  animals,  which  are  called  hieroglyphical  letters,  of  which  the 
Latins  are  ignorant  ) 

'  Herodotus,  B.  II,  v.  3G. 

^  Infidelity  found  no  advocates  among  the  ancient  Egyptians.  They  considered  the 
present  life  as  a  pilgrimage,  and  their  abode  here  as  an  "  inn  "  upon  the  road.  After 
death  they  expected  to  be  received  into  the  company  of  a  Being  who  represented  the 
Divine  goodness,  should  judgment  pronounce  them  worthy.  All  ranks  of  the  people 
were  considered  as  equally  noble  beyond  the  tomb,  neither  did  kings  or  heroes  rank* 
any  higher  than  the  humblest  in  another  life.  The  respect  paid  to  their  memory 
depended  entirely  on  their  good  conduct  while  here,  the  Egyptian  laws  wholly  prohib- 
iting indiscriminate  praise.  Such  honor  as  a  respectable  burial  could  only  be  obtained 
after  the  judges,  selected  for  the  purpose,  had  adjudged  the  subject  worthy  from  an 
impartial  examination  of  his  life.  If  no  crime  attached  to  his  conduct,  the  body  was 
interred  in  an  honorable  manner;  if  stained,  it  was  deprived  of  burial.  So  strictly 
was  this  rule  enforced  that  many  of  the  kings,  although  borne  with  in  life,  were  for- 
bidden sepulture  thereafter.  A  favorable  judgment  obtained,  the  mortuary  ceremonies 
proceeded.  In  all  panegyrics  on  such  occasions,  no  mention  was  made  of  birth, 
every  Egyptian  being  deemed  equally  noble  in  this  respect.  No  praise  was  thought 
just  or  true  except  such  as  related  to  the  personal  merit  of  the  dead.  "  He  was 
applauded,"  says  liollin,  "for  having  received  an  excellent  education  in  his  younger 
years,  and  in  his  advanced  age  for  having  cultivated  piety  toward  the  gods,  justice 
towards  men,  gentleness,  modesty,  moderation,  and  all  other  virtues  which  constitute 
the  good  man."  Such  virtues  gratified  the  friends  of  the  departed,  since  such  a  life 
would  admit  him  to  Pluto's  kingdom  and  the  society  of  the  good  in  another  world. 


EGYPTIAN  FUNERAL    CEREMONIES.  23 

We  have  not  room,  even  had  we  the  disposition,  to  enter  fully  into 
the  particulars  history  gives  us  concerning  the  mode  of  embalming  as 
practiced  among  the  Egyptians.  Consequently  we  must  refer  the 
reader  for  details  to  the  interesting  pages  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus 
Siculus.  Assuming  that  the  sledge  was  early  used  for  the  conveyance 
of  the  dead  body  at  a  period  when,  as  yet,  no  other  had  been  invented, 
and  under  circumstances  where  much  honor  was  conferred,  and  that  it 
was  continued  ever  after  on  funeral  occasions,  even  after  chariots  came 
into  use,  because  custom  had  rendered  it  sacred,  our  theory  that  such 
were  first  constructed  is  at  least  made  very  plausible  in  the  absence  of 
other  direct  testimony.  We  are  distinctly  given  to  understand  by 
contemporary  historians  that  the  Egyptians  scrupulously  observed 
their  ancient  customs,  but  acquired  no  new  ones.^  This,  undoubtedly, 
accounts  for  the  presence  of  sledge-hearses  in  all  representations 
showing  the  removal  of  the  dead  throughout  every  age  of  Egyptian 
sculpture. 

It  need  not  be  inferred  from  what  we  have  written  that  all  bodies 
were  hidden  away  in  the  tomb.  On  the  contrary,  many  were  consumed 
on  the  funeral  pile,  some  were  buried  in  the  earth,  while  others 
again,  after  they  had  come  from  the  embalmer's  shop,  were  kept  in 
the  house  for  years,  until  finally  they  were  deposited  in  the  catacombs. 
The  mourning  for  a  good  king  lasted  the  space  of  seventy  days,  during 
which  the  people  sang  hymns  commemorating  his  virtues,  rending 
their  garments,  and  covering  their  heads  with  mud  and  dust,  some 
three  hundred  persons  of  both  sexes  coming  together  twice  each  day  to 
publicly  sing  a  funeral  dirge,  the  entire  nation  abstaining  from  meat 
and  other  dainties  during  the  whole  time.  On  the  last  day  of  mourn- 
ing, or  in  some  instances  many  months  afterward,  the  time  for  sep- 
ulture arrived.  Supposing  that  an  embalmed  king  is  to  be  laid 
away,  perhaps  in  a  tomb  on  which  a  lifetime  of  preparation  has 
been  bestowed,  the  body  is  now  brought  out  from  the  closet,  where  it 
has  been  carefully  stored  since  the  funeral  ceremonies  were  performed, 
and  given  to  the  undertaker,  who  comes  with  a  sledge-hearse,  as 
shown  in  the  engraving  on  the  next  page.  The  several  figures  are  thus 
arranged :  in  the  center  appear  the  sacred  cows,  decked  with  elegant 


Herodotus,  B.  II,  ch.  79. 


24 


EGYPTIAN    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


blankets  and  ornamental  head 
and  neck  gear,i  which  hist  (of  a 
peculiar  pattern)  is  found  at- 
tached to  the  heads  of  all  female 
animals,  in  Egyptian  bass-reliefs, 
drag-ropes  in  this  case  being  fiis- 
tened  to  the  horns,  evidently 
"more  for  ornament  than  use," 
two  attendants  furnishing  the 
motive-power,  while  a  third  acts 
as  conductor.  In  the  foreground 
are  four  more  representatives  of 
the  genus  homo.  First,  we  no- 
tice the  priest,  as  hidicated  by 
the  peculiarity  of  his  dress.  He 
appears  in  the  act  of  anointing 
the  dead  body  with  sacred  oil, 
or  some  other  liquid,  from  a  ves- 
sel of  peculiar  shape.  Just  in 
front  of  the  priest,  squatting  near 
the  earth,  we  find  a  mercenary 
mourner,  her  hair  disheveled,  her 
breasts  exposed,  and  her  hands 
fixed  in  the  position  most  expres- 
sive of  grief,  no  doubt  crying  as 
sincerely  as  in  hired  ■mourning  it 
has  ever  l)een  done.  Around  the 
third  figure  centers  the  greatest 
interest,  since  it  represents  the 
dead  dressed  in  cerements  for  the 
tomb,  to  which  the  body  is  now 
about  to  be  carried.  The  fourth, 
supporting  the  corpse  in  a  lean- 
ing position,  represents  an  at- 
tendant, who,  in  all  probability, 
ofiiciates  both  as  priest  and  un- 


^  The  ancient  Egyptians  reverenced 
the  cow  more  tlian  any  other  animal.  — 
Herodotus^  B.  II,  ch.  41. 


CEREMONIES  IN  HONOR   OF   THE  DEAD.  25 

dertaker  on  this  occasion.^  This  picture  represents  a  funeral  cortege 
before  the  house  of  mourning,  from  whence  a  corpse  previously  em- 
balmed is  about  to  be  removed  to  a  tomb  beyond  the  river,  —  that 
is,  to  the  western  side  of  the  Nile,  —  a  sort  of  boat  (Egyptian,  baris) 
in  which  is  placed  a  hearse,  resting  on  the  sledge.  On  a  sort  of  dais 
in  front  of  the  boat  is  placed  the  figure  of  a  fox  (probably  indicative 
of  wisdom) ,  both  the  hearse  and  boat  being  appropriately  ornamented 
with  papyrus  flowers.  The  rituals  for  the  dead  being  chiefly  written 
on  paper  made  from  this  plant,  we  conclude,  lacking  other  testimony, 
there  was  something  peculiarly  sacred  about  it,  and  therefore  it  was 
used  on  funeral  occasions. 

In  another  bass-relief  the  body  is  represented  as  actually  on  its  way 
to  the  tomb,  stretched  upon  a  bier,  placed  on  the  sledge-hearse,  the 
order  of  procession  being  thus  :  first,  two  sacred  oxen  travel  in  advance 
of  the  hearse,  on  which  the  boat  is  placed.  A  rope  connects  the  front 
of  the  sledge  with  the  horns  of  the  oxen,  one  animal  following  the 
other,  after  the  manner  of  the  cows  on  page  24.  These  oxen  are 
attended  by  two  conductors,  the  foremost  holding  up  a  whip  as  if 
about  to  strike  with  it,  while  his  companion,  with  distended  arms,  at 
the  top  of  his  voice,  appears  to  be  hastening  their  steps.  A  third 
follows  after,  holding  some  sacred  utensil ;  then  march  two  more  men 
grasping  the  cord  at  the  middle ;  the  sixth  figure  being  the  indispen- 
sable female  in  the  role  of  chief  mourner,  as  previously  observed. 
These  all  precede  the  sledge-hearse.  Next,  behind  the  hearse,  comes 
another  mourner;    then  two   scribes,   having  scrolls  in  their  hands. 


1  "  In  sacred  subjects  the  law  was  inflexible,  and  religion,  which  has  done  frequently 
so  much  for  the  development  and  direction  of  taste  in  sculpture,  had  the  effect  of  fet- 
tering the  genius  of  Egyptian  artists.  No  improvements  resulting  from  experience  and 
observation  were  admitted  in  the  mode  of  drawing  the  human  figure  :  to  copy  nature  was 
not  allowed ;  it  was  therefore  useless  to  study  it ;  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  give  the 
proper  action  to  the  limbs.  Certain  rules,  certain  models,  had  been  established  by 
the  priesthood,  and  the  faulty  conceptions  of  ignorant  times  were  copied  and  perpetu- 
ated by  every  successive  artist ;  for,  as  Plato  and  Synesius  say,  the  Egyptian  sculptors 
were  not  allowed  to  attempt  anything  contrary  to  the  regulations  laid  down  regarding 
the  figures  of  the  gods ;  they  were  forbidden  to  introduce  any  change,  or  to  invent 
new  subjects  and  habits;  and  thus  the  art,  and  the  rules  which  bound  it,  always 
remained  the  same.  —  Wilkinson's  Ancie^it  Egyptians,  Vol.  II,  p.  264.  This  condition 
of  affairs  is  said  to  have  continued  without  much  improvement  for  about  three  thou- 
sand years,  or  down  to  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  according  to  Manetho,  — two  thousand 
and  eighty-two  years  previous  to  the  advent  of  the  Saviour. 


26 


EGYPTIAN    WOBLD    OK    WHEELS. 


followed  by  two  others  bearing-  staves.  The  scribes  are  supposed  to 
carry  the  papyrus  rolls,  in  which  are  written  the  good  deeds  of  the 
departed,  without  which  no  Egyptian,  as  we  have  seen,  could  be 
honorably  interred. 

In  one  instance, — as  in  the  annexed  copy,  taken  from  a  tomb  in 
Thebes,  —  an  attendant  is  shown,  pouring  some  kind  of  a  liquid  from 
a  jar  upon  the  ground,  over  which  the  sledge  is  drawn,  to  facilitate  its 
progress.     Examples  of  this  nature  are  frequently  seen  in  Egyptian 


Egyptian  Sledge-hearse 


bass-reliefs,  depicting  the  removal  of  heavy  loads.  On  this  sledge- 
hearse  the  mummy-case,  enclosing  the  corpse,  is  distinctly  observed. 
With  characteristic  tenderness,  two  females  steady  the  mummy  as 
it  moves  along  over  the  rou2:h  surface  of  the  ground ;  the  priest, 
meanwhile,  mounted  in  front,  scroll  in  hand,  recites  a  panegyric,  or 
perhaps  delivers  a  funeral  oration  in  honor  of  the  dead.  The  priest, 
as  is  proved  from  the  bass-reliefs  representing  funerals,  was  an  im- 
_  portant   personage    on  all 

___^ "  ^v  such  occasions.     That  they 

enjoyed  much  honor  and 
many  privileges  is  admitted 
by  all  historians. 

A  very  showy  affair  is 
found  in  the  next  illustra- 
tion, rivaling  the  mourning 
equipages  of  modern  times. 
Among  other  figures  ap- 
klegant  Sledge -hearse.  pear  emblems  of  stability 


AH  EGYPTIAN  FUNERAL    COETEGE  UESCBIBED. 


e 


m 


and  security  1  on  the  side  panels.     In  this  instance  the  undci-taker  has 
removed  a  portion  of  the  paneling  so  as  to 

expose  the   head  of  the    mummy-case.      It  _  

would  seem  from  this,  that  the  modern  prac-  r  ^"~~~Si  aT' 
tice  of  showing  a  coffin  through  a  glass  side 
is  of  great  antiquity.  Indeed,  we  seldom  find 
anj^lhing  new  that  has  not  an  antiquarian  ori- 
gin, thus  verifying  the  words  of  the  wise  man, 
'■  There  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun."  2 

In  another  picture  Ave  find  a  boat-hearse, 
represented  as  drawn  by  a  rope  attached  to 
the  horns  of  four  sacred  oxen,  driven  abreast, 
the  machine  being  accompanied  by  six  per- 
sons :  first,  a  priest,  with  his  head  shorn  and 
bound  with  a  ribbon,  carrying  his  hands  aloft, 
followed  by  a  driver  with  a  whip,  both  march-  »  K 
ing  abreast  of  the  animals;  behind  these,  a  S  ■ 
third  person,  bearing  the  record  of  the  de- 
funct man's  life  in  his  right,  and  a  skin-bottle 
or  pail  in  the  left  hand ;  next,  another  priest 
in  a  leopard-skin  cassock,  who  offers  incense 
from  a  censer  held  in  the  right  hand,  at  the 
same  time  pouring  out  a  libation  to  the  gods, 
or  in  honor  of  the  deceased,  from  a  cup  in 
the  other.     The  mummy-case  is  seen  through 

an  opening  in  the  side  of  the  hearse  near  the     o  1 S^^ 

bottom,  behind  which  the  indispensable 
mourner,  with  hair  disordered  and  hand  rest- 
ing on  her  head,  but  in  this  case  assisted 
by  a  male  companion  with  short  hair,  the  left 
arm,  with  a  spread  hand,  hanging  down  by  his 
side.  3 

In  a  third  example — illustrative  of  ancient 
funeral  customs  among  the  Egyptians,  like- 
wise copied  from  the  walls  of  a  catacomb  — 

^  That  is,  figures  representing  Osiris  as  tlie  god  of  stability  and  security. 

^  Eccles.,  ch.  i,  v.  9. 

^  Rossellini's  Monumenti  delVe  Egitto  e  delle  Nubia,  PI.  CXXVIII. 


28  EGYPTIAN    WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

the  cortege  is  represented  as  being  on  its  way  to  the  river,  across 
which  it  must  pass  in  order  to  reach  its  destination.  For  this  purpose 
the  boat  has  been  put  on  the  funeral  sledge,  the  sledge  itself  being 
now  mounted  upon  wheels,  thus  seeming  to  confirm  our  theory  that 
the  sledge  was  the  original  of  all  the  wheeled  carriages  known.  Some 
idea  of  the  progress  of  art  may  be  obtained  by  comparing  the  last 
engraving  with  that  on  page  24.  These  hearses,  employed  for  like 
purposes,  are  constructed  somewhat  differently.  In  the  last  figure  we 
see  the  sacred  oxen,  the  driver,  and 'another  man,  whose  mark  of  ofiice 
has  been  destroyed  by  time;  next,  the  priest  bearing  a  censer;  and 
then  another  man  in  the  rear,  who  appears  to  have  the  direction  of  the 
whole  movement.  The  oars  at  the  stern  of  the  boat  indicate  that  the 
crossing  of  some  stream  is  intended.  At  the  prow  is  the  image  of  a 
fox,  and  below  an  eye,  representing  the  all- wise  and  all-seeing  attri- 
butes of  Deity.  In  the  language  of  antiquity,  the  helmsman  or  pilot 
was  called  Charon,  from  which  circumstance  is  supposed  to  have 
originated  the  fiible  of  Charon  and  his  boat  among  the  Grecians. 
According  to  this  fable,  Charon,  the  son  of  Erebus  and  Nox,  who 
serves  as  the  ferry-man  of  Hades,  wafts  the  souls  of  the  dead  in  a  boat 
over  the  Stygian  Lake,  to  receive  judgment  from  JEcus,  Ehadaman- 
thus,  and  Minos,  for  which  service  Charon  received  an  obolus  from  the 
passenger,  friends  placing  the  money  in  the  dead  man's  mouth  for  that 
purpose.^ 

Wilkinson  thus  describes  an  ancient  Egyptian  funeral  procession  : 
"First  came  several  servants  carrying  tables  laden  with  fruit,  cakes, 
flowers,  vases  of  ointment,  wine  and  other  liquids,  with  three  young 

■  Virgil  puts  tlie  following  words  into  the  mouth  of  the  sibyl,  in  the  infernal 
regions : — 

' '  Portitor  has  horrendus  aquas  et  flumina  servat 
Terribili  squalore  Charon ;  cui  pluriina  mento 
Canities  inculta  jacet ;  stant  lumina  flamma ; 
Sordidus  ex  humeris  nodo  dependet  amictus. 
Ipse  ratem  conto  subigit,  velisque  miuistrat, 
Et  ferruginea  subvectat  corpora  cymba ; 
Jam  senior."  ^n.,  B.  VI,  298-304. 

(Translation.  —  The  ferry-man  Charon,  offensive  with  horrible  filth,  whose  abun- 
dant gray  hair  lies  neglected  on  his  chin,  protects  these  waters  and  these  rivers ;  his 
eyes  of  flame  stand  out ;  a  dirty  dress  in  a  knot  hangs  from  his  shoulders.  A  raft  sup- 
plied with  sails  he  guides  with  a  pole,  and  in  an  iron-colored  boat  he  carries  over  the 
now  withered  bodies.) 


COMBINED   WAGOJS'  AND   FUNERAL-BOAT.  29 

geese  and  a  calf  for  sacrifice,  chairs  and  wooden  tablets,  napkins,  and 
other  things ;  then  others  bringing  the  small  closets  in  which  the 
mummy  of  the  deceased  and  his  ancestors  had  been  kept  while  receiv- 
ing the  funeral  liturgies  previous  to  burial,  and  which  sometimes  con- 
tained the  images  of  the  gods.  These  also  carried  daggers,  bows, 
sandals,  and  fans,  each  man  having  a  kerchief  or  napkin  on  his  shoul- 
ders. Next  came  a  table  of  offerings,  fanteuils,  couches,  boxes,  and  a 
chariot ;  and  then  the  charioteer  with  a  pair  of  horses  yoked  in  another 
car,  which  he  drove,  as  he  followed  on  foot,  in  token  of  respect  to  his 
late  master.  After  these  were  men  carrying  gold  vases  on  a  table, 
with  other  offerings,  boxes,  and  a  large  car  upon  a  sledge  borne  on 
poles  by  four,  superintended  by  two  men  of  the  priestly  order ;  then 
others  bearing  small  images  of  his  ancestors,  arms,  fans,  the  scepters, 
signets,  collars,  necklaces,  and  other  things  appertaining  to  the  king, 
in  whose  service  he  had  held  an  important  office.  To  these  succeeded 
the  bearers  of  a  sacred  boat ;  and  that  mysterious  eye  of  Osiris,  as  god 
of  stability,  so  common  on  funeral  monuments,  —  the  same  which  was 
placed  over  the  incision  in  the  side  of  the  body  when  embalmed,  as 
well  as  on  the  prow  and  rudder  of  the  funeral  boat,  —  was  the  emblem 
of  Egypt,  and  was  frequently  used  as  a  sort  of  amulet,  and  deposited 
in  the  tombs.  Others  carried  the  well-known  small  images  of  blue 
pottery,  representing  the  deceased  under  the  form  of  Osiris,  and  the 
bird  emblematic  of  the  soul.  Following  these  were  seven  or  more 
men  leaning  upon  staves  or  wooden  yokes,  cases  filled  with  flowers, 
and  bottles  for  libations  ;  and  then  seven  or  eight  women,  having  their 
heads  bound  with  fillets,  beating  their  breasts,  throwing  dust  upon 
their  heads,  and  uttering  doleful  lamentations  for  the  deceased,  inter- 
mixed with  praises  of  his  virtue."^ 

A  singular  instance  of  the  wagon  and  funeral-boat  in  combination 
has  been  found  on  the  bandage  of  a  mummy,  now  preserved  in  the 
collection  of  S.  d'Athanasi.     It  is  supposed  by  some  modern  authors 

1  The  oldest  relic  of  humauity  known  with  certainty  is  that  of  Pharaola  Mykerinus 
(Mcnkeres),  deposited  in  the  British  Museum  in  1867.  This  king  succeeded  the  heir 
of  the  builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  is  supposed  to  liave  lived  ten  centuries  before 
Christ,  and  before  Solomon  was  born;  about  eleven  centuries  or  so  after  Mizraim,  the 
grandson  of  Noah,  and  the  first  of  the  Pharaohs  had  been  gathered  with  their  fathers. 
It  is  judged  that  the  tide-marks  of  the  Deluge  liad  scarcely  become  obliterated  when 
this  man  of  the  early  world  "lived,  moved,  and  had  his  being."  The  mummy  is  well 
preserved,  in  its  original  burial-robes. 


30 


EGYPTIAN-  WOBLD    OW  WHEELS. 


that  Herodotus,  in  speaking  of  the  religious  ceremonies  in  honor  of 
Mars,  as  performed  in  the  city  of  Pampremis,  refers  to  this  vehicle. 
Among  other  things,  he  tells  us  that  the  priests  placed  an  image  in  a 
wooden  temple,  gilded  all  over,  which  they  carried  to  a  sacred  dwell- 
ing ;  "  then  the  few  who  were  loft  about  the  image  draw  a  four-wheeled 
carriage   contaming  the  temple   and   the   image." ^      Notwithstanding 

all  historians 
have  said  on 
this  subject, 
we  judge  that 
this  vehicle 
is  the  same 
sledge-hearse 
we  have  seen 
before,  ivil/i 
laterimprove- 
ments.  The 
Wagon  and  Boat,  prom  a  Mummy  Bandage.  mummv-case 

and  other  accessories  seem  to  favor  this  conclusion,  and  the  eight- 
spoked  wheel  is  good  evidence  that  it  was  invented  near  the  close  of 
Egyptian  prosperity,  or  after  superstition  had  been  in  some  measure 
overcome  by  intercourse  with  the  Israelites  in  the  days  of  Solomon, 
who  had  in  his  harem  an  Egyptian  princess,  daughter  of  one  of  the 
Pharaohs. 

Having,  as  we  think,  conclusively  shown  that  the  earlier  vehicles 
were  sledges,  next,  that  they  were  mounted  upon  wheels,  we  now 
proceed,  as  nearly  as  possible  in  chronological  order,  and  give,  in 
connection  with  Egyptian  ceremonies,  copies  from  bass-reliefs,  on  a 
reduced  scale,  showing  the  progress  in  chariot-building  among  that 
ancient  people.  We  discover  nothing  but  bigas  —  two-horse  vehicles 
—  on  any  monument ;  and  when  battle-scenes  are  delineated,  only  two 
persons  in  a  chariot,  the  driver  and  the  combatant,  unless  a  king  be 
represented,  when  he  appears  unattended  by  a  charioteer.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  ancient  artist  may  have  omitted  the  driver  in  order 
not  to  interfere  with  the  principal  figure ;  ^  l)ut  the  faithfulness  of 
the   bass-reliefs  receives    confirmation   from   the    Greek   and   Roman 


Herodotus,  B.  II,  v.  63. 


■■*  Wilkiuson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  Vol.  I,  p.  371. 


CONQUESTS  Jjy  ASIA  AND  AFRICA. 


31 


authorities,  who  describe  their 
heroes  as  always  engaged  in 
single  combat. 

Our  first  chariot  is  copied 
from  a  bass-relief  on  the  walls 
of  a  temple  at  Karnak,  com- 
memorative of  the  victories  of 
Menepthah  I  in  various  por- 
tions of  Asia  and  Africa,  about 
sixteen  hundred  centuries  pre- 
vious to  the  advent  of  Christ. 
Ours  is  a  reduced  copy  from 
the  great  work  of  Rossellini, 
published  by  authority  of  the 
Tuscan  government. i  The  se- 
ries begins  with  the  represen- 
tation of  an  attack  upon  a  cas- 
tle situated  on  a  hill,  in  which 
many  soldiers  are  slain  and  the 
Egyptians  are  conquerors .  The 
upper  portion  of  the  original 
slab  time  has  destroyed,  but 
sufficient  remains  to  show  that 

'  Monumenti  dell'  Egitto  e  della 
Nubia  diseguati  della  spedizione  sci- 
entifico-letteraria  Toscauo  in  Egitto 
distribuiti  in  ordine  di  materie  inter- 
pretati  ed  illustrati  del  dottore  Ippo- 
lito  Eossellini  direttore  della  spedizi- 
one Professore  di  lettere  storia  e  an- 
tichita  orientali  nell'i  e.  r.  TJniversita 
di  Pisa,  membro  ordinario  dell'  Insti- 
tuto  d'Archeologia  e  correspondente 
di  varie  Academie  d'  Europa:  Pisa 
presso  Nicolo  Capurio,  e  c  MDCCC- 
XXXII.  This  is  numbered  PI  XL VI. 
"Commincia  la  serie  delle  battaglie 
e  conquiste  di  Menepthah  I,  nell' 
Africa  representate  in  grandi  basso- 
relievo  a  Karnac."  A.  M.  circa  2401, 
B.  C.  1604.  Menepthah  I  reigned 
twenty-four  years. 


32 


EGYPTIAN  WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


the  kino;,  represented  in  colossal  proportions,  having  dismounted  from 
his  chariot,  is  now  accepting  the  " miconditional  surrender"  of  his  foes, 
who,  in  a  supplicating  mood,  may  be  seen  emerging  from  the  forest. 
To  prove  the  sincerity  of  the  enemy,  two  men  are  represented  in  the  act 

of  felling  a  tree,  while 
two  others  (omitted 
in  the  engraving)  low- 
er it  by  ropes  fastened 
high  up  among  the 
branches.  The  two 
chief  actors,  having 
sandals  to  their  feet, 
show  that  they  are 
principals  in  tlie  nego- 
tiation, the  soldiers 
being  barefooted.  The 
conqueror  and  the  con- 
quered both  extend 
the  right  hand,  while 
holding  each  his  bow 
in  the  left,  the  king  all 
the  while  holding  his 
horses  by  the  reins. 
Behind  the  fiillen 
chieftain  stand  and 
kneel  four  others  with 
outstretched  hands, 
pleading  for  mercy, 
all  of  which  is  very 
significant.  The  body 
of  the  chariot  is  shown 
in  outline,  with  the 
top  corners  rounded 
off',  proving  the  good 
taste  of  the  artisan 
even  in  those  early 
times. 

Another  Ijass-relief 


FUBNITURE   OF  EGYPTIAN  CHARIOTS.  33 

represents  the  triumphiil  homeward  mareh  of  the  kuig,  further  showiiio; 
the  inamiers  and  customs  of  this  interesting  people.  Althouo-h  the 
artist  intended  to  give  us  a  picture  of  the  party  of  which  the  precedino- 
forms  a  section,  yet  when  we  compare  the  two,  we  find  that  the  furni- 
ture of  both  horses  and  chariots  differs  in  many  essential  points.  Here 
the  king  —  as  usual,  of  huge  proportions  —  is  represented  as  graspino- 
a  falchion  and  reins  in  the  right  hand,  at  the  same  time  holdino-  in  the 
left  other  reins,  his  bow,  and  a  collection  of  lotus  flowers,  while  at  his 
shoulder  dangles  an  empty  quiver,  showing  that  the  warrior's  labor  is 
finished.  At  the  rear  of  the  chariot  hang  the  heads  of  slain  enemies. 
Three  captives  in  leading-strings  and  the  king's  body-guard  follow 
behind,  while  several  other  captives  are  marching  before  the  chariot, 
having  their  arms  bound.  A  profusion  of  flowers,  expressive  of  joy, 
ornament  the  bow-cases.  The  ostrich-plume  head-dresses,  effaced  by 
time  in  the  previous  picture,  are  here  seen  "in  full  feather."  Leavino- 
our  hero  on  his  triumphal  march  homeward,  let  us  now  examine  some 
of  the  inside  furniture  and  other  matters  in  connection  with  Egyptian 
chariots. 

There  is  no  positive  evidence  of  the  existence  of  seats  in  Egyptian 
chariots,  and  in  every  instance  the  passengers  are  represented  in  a 
standing  position.  If  these  ever  sat,  they  probably  did  so  restino-  on 
the  top-rail.  We  often  find  representations  on  the  bass-reliefs  where 
men  are  tumbling  out  of  the  back  end  when  slain.  In  some  chariots 
the  bottoms  or  floors  are  made  of  ropes  interlaced,  thereby  imparting 
to  it  a  certain  degree  of  elas- 
ticity. Wilkinson  says  that  /^^"""^ 
"in  driving,  the  Egyptians 
used  a  whip,  like  the  heroes 
and  charioteers  of  Homer ; 
and  this,  or  a  short  stick, 
was  employed,  even  for 
beasts  of  burden  and  for 
oxen  at  the  plow,  in  pref- 
erence to  the  goad.  The 
whip  consisted  of  a  smooth 
round  wooden  handle  and  a 
sino;le   or  double  thono- :    it 

sometimes      had      a      lash      of  Egyptian   Whips. 

3 


34 


EGYPTIAN    WORLD    OW   JVHEELS. 


leather  or  string  about  two  feet  in  length,  either  twisted  or  plaited ; 
and  a  loop  being  attached  to  the  lower  end,  the  archer  was  enabled  to 
use  the  bow  while  it  hung  suspended  from  his  wrist."  ^  This  jDractice 
rendered  the  whip  readily  available  in  case  of  danger,  when  the  war- 
rior, by  whipping  up  his  horses,  might  escape.  Some  of  these  whips 
were  elegantly  braided,  and  otherwise  ornamentally  made,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  bass-reliefs. 

The  next  engraving  represents  an  archer,  who  at  the  same  time  is 
his  own  charioteer,  with  a  whip  suspended  from  his  wrist,  and  the 
reirns  tied  around  his  waist,  in  the  act  of 
discharging  an  arrow  from  the  bow  against 
an  enemy.  This  expedient  seems  to  have 
answered  a  very  good  purpose  in  extreme 
cases,  where  accident  had  overtaken  the 
charioteer;  but  it  must  not  be  taken  as 
the  general  mode  in  ancient  warfare,  since 
it  entails  more  labor  upon  the  warrior  than 
is  compatible  with  prudence. 

From  Plates  LIII  to  LIX,  inclusive, 
Rossellini  gives  us  another  series  of  pic- 
tures, representing  the  further  battles, 
victories,  and  triumphal  processions  of  the 
same  monarch.^  Of  the  first  plate  only  a 
frairment  remains.  On  the  second  is  the 
representation  of  a  chariot,  in  which  a 
warrior  stands,  the  sides  of  which  are  quite  open,  so  much  so  that  his 
legs  are  plainly  seen,  —  then,  apparently,  the  fashionable  mode  of  con- 
struction,—  holding  a  bow  in  one  hand  and  a  sword  in  the  other, 
with  one  foot  forward  on  the  pole  in  bracing  attitude.  Alongside  of 
the  chariot  is  a  captive,  holding  a  broken  bow  in  his  left  hand,  having 
the  fingers  of  the  other  wide-spread,  pleading  for  mercy.  All  around 
are  the  wounded,  the  dying,  and  the  dead,  pierced  by  the  fatal  arrow. 
On  the  third  is  the  representation  of  a  triumphal  procession,  where  the 


Whip  suspended  from  Wrist. 


^  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egijptians,  Vol.  I,  p.  372. 

*  In  the  Tuscan  work  this  series  is  thus  introduced :  "  Sequito  della  battaglie  con- 
quiste  di  Memphtha  I,  reppresentate  in  graudi  basso-relievi  suUa  parete  esterna  sud-est 
dell'  edifizio  Karnac."  This  king  was  the  successor  of  Tethmosis  {circa  B.  C.  1500), 
ruling  over  Egypt  about  thirty  years.     He  appears  by  birth  to  have  been  a  Theban. 


PROCESSION  IN  HONOR  OF  VICTORY. 


35 


hero,  holding  the  reins  in  his  left  hand,  elinehes  the  whip  and  sword 
with  the  right,  while 
a  host  of  chained  cap- 
tives, with  emblems 
of  degradation  fixed 
on  their  foreheads, 
march  in  the  van.  At 
the  front  and  rear  ends 
of  the  chariot  are  sus- 
pended a  number  of 
the  heads  of  slain  ene- 
mies, a  profusion  of 
lotus  flowers  being 
shown  at  different 
points. 

The  most  interest- 
ing of  the  series  (PI. 
LVIII)  portrays  with 
much  interest  a  tri- 
umphal procession  of 
this  same  king  (Me- 
nepthah  I) .  Some 
portions  of  the  origi- 
nal are  destroyed,  yet 
sufficient  remain  to 
give  us  a  correct  im- 
pression of  what  the 
artist  meant  to  illus- 
trate. The  victor, 
with  a  wreath  on  his 
brow,  is  seen  just 
stepping  into  his  char- 
iot, the  sides  of  which 
are  quite  open,  show- 
ing an  unusual  num- 
ber of  side-braces,  and 
leading  after  him  a 
portion  of  the  prison- 


36 


EGYPTIAN   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


(^rs  set  apart  for  this  special  purpose.  Near  the  king  are  three  mana- 
cled soldiers,  conquered  in  battle.  Behind  follow  two  chariots,  in 
which  are  mounted  several  other  prisoners,  likewise  having  their  arms 
bound.  In  front  of  the  chariot,  in  the  original  picture  (omitted  in 
ours),  other  prisoners  are  represented  on  the  march,  with  grief  and 
sorrow  strongly  depicted  in  their  countenances. 


Rameses  II  IN  Battle.— From   Beit-ualli,   in  Nubia. 

The  next  in  succession,  according  to  the  monuments,  is  Rameses 
11.^    He  is  supposed  to  have  reigned  over  Egypt  fourteen  years,  being 

^  He  is  called,  by  ancient  historians,  Armais  and  Armesses.     He  flourislied  about 
A.  M.  2426,  B.  C.  1579. 


CRUELTY  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN'S  IN  WAR. 


37 


by  birth  a  Theban.  His  victories  are  given  in  bass-relief  on  tlie  walls 
of  a  temple  at  Beit-ualli,  in  Nubia.  The  prominent  figure  in  the 
engraving  represents  the  king  —  the  shape  of  the  cap  on  his  head 
leaving  no  doubt  of  his  rank  in  this  instance  —  standing  in  his  chariot 
in  a  warlike  attitude,  having  seized  two  of  his  opponents  by  the  hair, 
at  the  same  time  holding  a  bow  in  the  left  hand  and  an  uplifted  falchion 
in  the  right,  indicating  his  intention  of  severing  from  their  bodies  the 
heads  of  his  victims,  several  wounded  soldiers  lying  disabled  beneath 
the  horses.  The  Egyptians  have  been  credited  with  having  exercised 
clemency  towards  a  foe ;  but  we  find  here,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
victims,  although  still  living,  have  been  lashed  beneath  the  pole  of  the 
chariot,  and  thus  tortured,  even  in  the  progress  of  a  battle.  In, the 
bass-relief  from  which  the  chariot  is  copied,  the  enemy  is  observed,  in 
confusion  and  dismay,  in  great  numbers  fleeing  from  the  king.  About 
twenty  years  are  supposed  to  have  intervened  between  the  drawing  of 
the  above  chariot  and  the  one  represented  on  page  35,  and  yet  there 
is  very  little  difierence  in  them.  The  side  of  this  last  is  not  quite  as 
much  open,  and  the  wheels  appear  to  be  iron,  which  we  are  told  were 
sometimes  used. 

The  horse-blanket  was  not  unknown  to  the  Egyptians.  At  first  it 
appears  to  have  been 
very  simple  and  plain 
in  design,  but  after  it 
came  into  general  use 
it  assumed  more  pre- 
tentious proportions 
than  it  did  former- 
ly, and  was  elabo- 
rately woven  in  col- 
ors. It  would  ap- 
pear that  the  harness 
for  curricles  and  that 
for  war-chariots  were 
nearly  alike,  and  the 
pole  in  either  case  was 
supported  l)y  a  curved 
yoke,  the  end  being- 
attached  to  the  yoke 


Egyptian   Horse-blanket 


38 


EGYPTIAN  WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


by  Ji  strong  pin,  bound  with  straps  or  thongs  of  leather  to  render  it 
still  more  secure.  The  yoke,  restmg  on  a  small,  nicely  padded  sad- 
dle, was  firmly  fitted  into  a  groove  of  metal,  and  the  saddle  placed 
upon  the  horse's  withers,  furnished  with  girths  and  a  breast-band,  was 
surmounted  by  an  ornamental  knob,  m  front  of  which  a  small  hook 

secured  it  to  the  bear- 
ing-rein. The  driving- 
reins  passed  through  a 
thono;  or  rino;  at  the  side 
of  the  saddle,  and  thence 
over  the  projecting  ex- 
tremity of  the  yoke,  the 
same  thono;  securinsj  the 
girths,  even  appearing 
m  some  cases  to  have  been  attached  to  them.  In  the  war-chariots,  a 
large  ball  placed  on  the  pole  projected  above  the  saddle,  which  was 
intended  either  to  give  a  greater  power  to  the  driver,  by  enabling  him 
to  draw  the  reins  over  a  groove  in  its  center,  or  was  added  solely  for 
an  ornamental  purpose,  like  the  fimcy  head-dresses  of  the  horses,  and 
fixed  to  the  yoke  immediately  above  the  center  of  the  saddle,  or  rather 
to  the  head  of  a  pin  which  connected  the  yoke  to  the  pole.^ 

A*mon£:  the  enemies  of  Rameses  II  were  the  Tokkari,  whom  he  con- 


Egyptian  Yok 


Captcred  Carts  of  the  Tokkari. 

quered  in  battle,  the  ancient  form  of  whose  carts  has  been  preserved 
on  the  monuments.  These  people,  we  are  told,  "wore  a  helmet  in 
form  and  appearance  very  much  resembling  those  in  the  sculptures  of 
Persepolis.     It  appears  to  have  been  made  of  a  kind  of  cloth  marked 


Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  Vol.  I,  p.  379. 


TOKKABI  GONQUEBED  BY  THE  EGYPTIANS.  39 

with  colored  stripes,  the  rim  adorned  with  a  row  of  large  beads  or 
other  ornameutal  devices,  and  was  secured  by  a  thong  or  ribbon  tied 
below  the  chin.  They  had  also  a  round  shield  and  short  dress,  fre- 
quently with  a  coat  of  armor  similar  to  that  of  the  Shairetana.  Their 
offensive  weapons  consisted  principally  of  a  spear,  and  a  large,  pointed 
knife  or  straight  sword.  They  sometimes,  though  rarely,  had  a  beard, 
which  was  still  more  unusual  with  the  chiefs ;  their  features  were 
regular,  the  nose  slightly  aquiline  ;  and  whenever  their  Egyptian  artists 
have  represented  them  on  a  large  scale,  the  face  presents  a  more 
pleasing  outline  than  the  generality  of  these  Asiatic  people.  They 
fought,  like  the  Egyptians,  in  chariots,  and  had  carts  or  wagons,  with 
two  solid  wheels,  drawn  by  a  pair  of  oxen,  which  appear  to  have  been 
placed  in  the  rear,  as  in  the  Scythian  and  Tartar  armies,  and  were 
used  for  carrying  off  the  old  men,  women,  and  children  in  defeat."  ^  At 
one  time  these  Tokkari  would  seem  to  have  been  the  allies  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  a  very  brave  and  energetic  people. 

In  the  Tuscan  work  of  Rossellini  are  several  plates  copied  from  the 
monuments,  illustrative  of  the  conquests  of  the  Egyptians  in  Central 
Africa,  under  Eameses  III.^  Many  of  the  chariots,  particularly  those 
on  Plate  LXX,  are  represented  with  extension  fronts,  similar  to  that 
shown  on  page  54.  The  faces  of  the  enemy  are  decidedly  African, 
and  that  there  might  remain  no  room  for  doubt  on  this  point, 
the  ancient  artist  has  added  to  his  design  numerous  palm-trees  and 
monkeys.  These  bass-reliefs  give  us  some  idea  of  Egyptian  power 
under  the  government  of  this  monarch.  It  is  said  that  he  carried  his 
conquests  into  Asia  and  Africa,  enforcing  tribute  even  from  some 
portions  of  the  Assyrian  empire ;  and  such  t^s  the  increase  in  the 


■  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  "Vol.  I,  pp.  392,  393. 

'^  The  plates  are  six  in  number,  from  LXX  to  LXXV  inclusive,  and  copies  from  the 
originals  in  bass-reliefs,  at  Seboah,  in  Nubia.  The  battles  they  perpetuate  took  place 
B.  C.  1565,  in  the  interior  of  Africa.  This  king  (Eameses  III),  having  eclipsed  the 
grandeur  of  Orsortasen,  —  one  of  the  Theban  rulers,  assigned  to  the  seventeenth 
dynasty,  —  became  ever  after  the  traditional  Sesostris  of  Egyptian  history  with  the 
Greek  authors.  In  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  lasting  about  three  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  years,  during  the  reigns  of  the  Thothmes,  Amunophs,  Ilameseses,  and  the  Me- 
nepthahs,  the  Egyptians,  having  extended  their  conquests  far  into  Asia  and  Africa, 
thereby  increased  the  glory  of  the  nation;  but  their  fiirae  was  subsequently  still  further 
increased  by  Ramescs  IV  in  the  nineteenth  dynasty.  This  last-mentioned  king  was 
known  to  ancient  historians  as  Sethos-Egyptus. 


40 


EGYPTIAN  WOELD   ON'  WHEELS. 


EGYPTIAN  CHARIOTS,  FROM  ABOO-SIMBEL.  41 

wealth  of  the  nation  at  this  period,  that  we  find  the  horses  covered 
with  trappings  and  blankets  really  beautiful,  even  the  bow  of  the 
warrior  having  taken  a  graceful  curve,  in  contrast  with  those  of  an 
earlier  date.  The  wheels  of  the  chariots  likewise  difier  widely  from 
those  heretofore  noticed,  having  still  the  six  spokes  in  the  hub,  but 
made  gradually  tapering  until  they  enter  the  felloes,  thereby  retaining 
the  strength,  while  improving  the  appearance. 

The  engraving  opposite  is  copied  from  a  very  fine  bass-relief  on  the 
walls  of  a  temple  at  Aboo-simbel,  in  Nubia.  ^     It  represents  Rameses 

VA  recent  visitor  to  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  at  Aboo-simbel,  says  :  "  On  the  banks 
of  the  river  Nile,  near  the  second  cataract,  in  a  wild  and  desolate  portion  of  Nubia, 
remote  from  the  habitation  of  man,  stands  the  grand  temple  of  Aboo-simbel.  This 
remarkable  relic  of  antiquity  was  erected  during  the  time  of  Rameses  the  Second,  who 
ruled  over  Egypt.  ...  Its  exterior  is  composed  of  solid  rock,  preserved  in  its 
natural  shape,  and  for  many  hundred  years  the  entrance  has  been  completely  closed  by 
the  sands  of  the  desert.  It  is  only  within  the  present  century  that  this  temple  has 
been  reopened,  since  which  time  repeated  efforts  have  been  made  to  arrest  the  progress 
of  the  sand,  which  persistently  returns  with  the  frequent  Khamseen  winds  to  hide  the 
narrow  portal.  The  changed  topography  of  the  country  enables  the  elements  to 
protect  this  strange  monument  of  the  past,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  as  long  as 
Nubian  rocks  and  mountains  last,  so  long  will  Aboo-simbel  stand.  At  the  entrance 
are  two  immense  colossi  representing  Rameses  the  Second  (Rameses  III?).  They  are 
seated  on  massive  thrones  cut  into  the  rock  in  such  a  manner  as  to  present  the  appear- 
ance of  grim  guardians  to  the  sacred  temple.  Their  total  height  is  about  sixty-six 
feet  without  the  pedestals.  To  form  an  accurate  idea  of  their  size,  it  may  be  well  to 
state  that  the  ear  of  each  colossus  measures  three  and  a  half  feet,  the  forefingers  three 
feet,  and  the  lower  portion  of  the  arm,  from  elbow  joint  to  finger  end,  has  a  measure- 
ment of  fifteen  feet.  The  height  of  the  fagade  of  the  temple  is  estimated  at  one  hundred 
feet ;  but  as  a  portion  of  the  base  still  remains  hidden,  it  is  impossible  to  determine 
the  precise  distance  with  accuracy.  The  interior  of  the  temple  is  adorned  with  works 
of  art  peculiar  to  the  period,  with  carvings  and  hieroglyphics  of  an  historical  character. 
The  principal  hall  is  supported  by  eight  Osiride  pillars,  while  beyond  it  is  a  second 
hall,  from  which  diverge  numerous  corridors  leading  into  ten  side  rooms  and  the 
adytum.  In  the  center  of  the  adytum  is  an  altar,  and  at  the  upper  end  are  four  statues 
in  relief.  Attached  to  the  columns  in  the  great  hall  are  eight  colossi,  each  seventeen 
feet  in  height  without  the  cap  and  pedestal.  Upon  the  walls  are  numerous  pictorial 
illustrations,  in  colors,  of  battle-scenes  and  conquests  of  Rameses  the  Second.  A 
portion  of  the  space  is  also  occupied  by  a  large  tablet  containing  the  date  of  this  mon- 
arch's first  year's  reign.  ...  In  a  niche  over  the  entrance  to  the  audience-chamber 
is  a  statue  of  '  Re '  (the  Sun),  who  was  the  god  of  the  temple  and  the  protector  of  the 
place.  To  this  statue  the  king  is  represented  as  oflering  a  figure  of  Truth.  The  The- 
ban  trial  also  occupies  a  prominent  place  here,  as  well  as  Osiris  and  Isis.  From  the 
center  entrance  to  the  innermost  chamber  of  this  temple,  the  total  depth  of  the  excava- 
tion is  about  two  hundred  feet,  and  not  a  ray  of  sunshine  ever  penetrates  the  darkness 
which  pervades  the  place.     To  visit  Aboo-simbel  we  were  compelled  to  wade  knee- 


42 


EGYPTIAN   WORLD    OJ^   WHEELS. 


Ill  as  standing  erect  in  a  richly  colored  ornamental  chariot,  with  high 
side  quarters,  having  six  braces  stretching  from  the  floor  to  the  nave, 
making  it  very  strong  and  firm.  In  front  of  the  body  is  a  fixture  of 
singular  form,  used  as  the  rest  for  a  bow-case.  The  wheel  is  beauti- 
fully drawn,  and  is  held  on  the  axle-tree  by  a  linchpin  of  no  ordinary 
design.  The  horses  are  richly  furnished  with  trappings  and  hand- 
somely covered  with  blankets,  but  in  many  respects  the  picture  is 
faulty  in  perspective ;  for  instance,  the  warrior  looks  as  though  he 
stood  on  the  off  side  of  the  chariot,  while  drawing  his  bow  with  the 
wrong  hand. 

On  some  of  the  bass-reliefs 
there  is  a  grand  display  of 
battle-chariots,  several  with 
the  effigy  of  a  lion  on  the 
side,  the  tails  of  which  curve 
with  the  openings,  and  like- 
wise having  embellished  bow- 
cases,  one  example  of  which 
is  shown  in  the  accompanying 
illustration. 

The  next  ruler  over  Egypt 
was  Menepthah  II,  a  son  of 
the  last  monarch.  Several 
bass-reliefs  are  still  extant  il- 
lustrative of  prominent  points 
in  the  history  of  his  reign, 
where  chariots  are  shown,  but 
they  do  not  exhibit  sufficient 
novelty  for  a  more  extended 
FuLiY  EQUIPPED  War-chariot.  uotlcc    ui   tlils    place.       AVe 


deep  through  saud  for  a  distance  of  about  a  hundred  rods  up  hill.  Crawling  on  liands 
and  knees  through  the  narrow  hole  which  admitted  us  into  the  interior,  we  soon  found 
ourselves  in  the  gloomy  recesses  of  the  temple.  Following  our  Arab  guides,  who  led 
the  way  with  flaming  torches,  we  passed  through  the  corridors  and  rooms  already 
described.  In  the  prosecution  of  our  archfeological  investigations  Ave  were  greatly 
terrified  by  myriads  of  bats,  which,  disturbed  by  the  flaming  torches  of  our  guides,  flew 
about  us,  occasionally  striking  us  in  the  face,  and  exhibiting  unmistakable  evidence 
of  their  rage  at  our  invasion  of  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  temple." 


ORGANIZATION  OF   THE  ARMY.  43 

therefore  pass  on,  and  notice  some  incidents  in  the  life  of  tlie  next 
king,  Menepthah  III  {circa  B.  C.  1496),  seventy  years  after  those 
recorded  of  Kameses  III.  In  the  engraving,  copied  from  a  bass-relief 
on  the  walls  of  a  palace  at  Medeenet  Hab5o,^  Thebes,  the  king  is 
represented  as  standing  upright  in  a  chariot,  fully  armed  and  equipped 
for  war,  accompanied  by  soldiers,  well  provided  with  spears  and 
shields.  Two  attendants  of  the  king  are  seen  walking  behind  the 
chariot,  carrying  flabellas  made  of  ostrich  feathers,  answering  either 
for  umbrellas  or  fans,  the  use  of  which  pertained  exclusively  to  royalty. 
This  king  and  his  immediate  successors,  who  were  Thebans,  carried 
their  conquests  as  far  as  Nigritia  in  Africa,  into  Asia  Minor,  to  Cholchis 
on  the  Euxine  Sea,  and  through  Central  Asia  into  Hindostan.  The 
exodus  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt  is  supposed  to  have  taken  place 
under  the  rule  of  this  monarch. 

According  to  Herodotus,  the  military  ranked  next  to  the  priests, 
as  these  last  did  next  to  the  king,  the  kins^  beino;  but  a  little  inferior 
to  the  gods  themselves. 2  To  the  soldiers,  by  an  edict  of  Scsostris 
(Menepthah  III) ,  were  assigned  certain  portions  of  land,  amounting  to 
about  eight  acres,  which  they  selected  for  themselves.  Diodorus  tells 
us  this  privilege  was  given  "that  those  who  exposed  themselves  to 
danger  in  the  field  might  be  more  ready  to  undergo  the  hazards  of  war, 
from  the  interest  they  felt  in  the  country  as  occupiers  of  the  soil ;  for 
it  would  be  absurd  to  commit  the  safety  of  the  community  to  those 
who  possessed  nothing  which  they  were  interested  in  preserving."  ^ 
The  soldiers  paid  no  taxes,  nor  could  they  be  imprisoned  for  debt,  in 
which  case  the  state  might  lose  their  services.  From  youth  they  were 
educated  in  the  art  of  war,  each  man  being  obliged  to  provide  himself 
with  the  necessary  arms,  both  offensive  and  defensive,  and  all  the  other 
necessary  requisites  for  an  active  campaign,  at  a  moment's  call,  or  to 
suppress  a  rebellion  should  such  arise. 

The  Egyptian  army  was  made  up  of  archers  of  undoubted  skill. 
These  fought  either  dismounted  or  from  a  chariot,  in  both  wings  of  the 
aiTxiy,  the  heavy  infantry  being  in  the  center,  these  last  being  divided 


^  Medeenet  Haboo  was  a  place  of  eousiderable  importance  before  the  Arabs  invaded 
Egypt,  and  still  boasts  of  an  astonishing  collection  of  gigantic  and  palatial  edifices. 
2  Herodotus,  B.  II,  1G4. 
»  Diod.,  B.  I. 


4A 


EGYPTIAN    WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


MAKE-UP   OF  AN  EGYPTIAN  AB3fY.  45 

into  regiments.  Wilkinson  observes  that,  "though  Egyptian  horsemen 
are  rarely  found  on  any  monument,  they  are  too  frequently  and  posi- 
tively noticed  in  sacred  and  profane  history  to  allow  us  to  question 
their  employment,  and  an  ancient  battle-ax  represents  a  mounted 
soldier  on  its  blade.  The  infantry  was  made  up  of  bowmen,  spearmen, 
swordsmen,  clubmen,  and  slingers,  under  regular  discipline,  divided 
into  battalions  and  companies  under  appropriate  officers.  When  in 
battle  array  the  heavy  infantry  formed  an  impregnable  phalanx,  armed 
with  spears,  falchions,  and  shields,  the  bowmen  as  well  as  the  light 
infantry  acting  either  in  line  or  broken  columns,  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  fields.  To  each  battalion  or  company  was  assigned  a 
particular  standard,  borne  aloft,  with  suitable  device  thereon,  to  which 
a  superstitious  respect  was  shown.  The  standard-bearers  were  selected 
from  men  of  known  valor,  and  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  badge,  hung 
from  the  neck,  in  some  cases  showing  two  lions,  emblematical  of 
courage.  The  royal  standards,  as  well  as  the  'flabella'  before  men- 
tioned, were  carried  either  by  the  princes,  or  the  sons  of  the  nobility 
holding  the  rank  of  generals,  acting  likewise  as  aids-de-camp  on  the 
field,  and  prominent  officers  in  other  processions,  civil  and  religious. 
Some  bore  the  state  fans  behind  the  king,  when  he  visited  the  temple 
and  on  other  public  occasions ;  others,  according  to  rank,  carried  his 
scepter  or  waved  the  flabella  before  him,  either  on  his  right  or  left 
hand. 

"The  offensive  weapons  were  bows,  spears,  two  kinds  of  javelins, 
slings,  a  short  sword,  dagger,  knife,  falchion,  battle-ax,  hatchet,  pole- 
ax,  clubs,  and  curved  sticks.  The  defensive  armor  consisted  of  a 
metal  helmet,  a  cuirass,  or  coat  of  armor  made  of  metal  plates  or 
quilted  with  metal  bands,  and  a  large  shield.  These  shields  were 
about  half  the  length  of  the  man,  and  double  their  own  breadth,  gener- 
all}^  covered  with  bull's  hide,  the  hair  side  outwards.  The  frame  was 
wood  strengthened  by  metal  pins  of  the  form  shown  on  the  opposite 
page,  where  soldiers  are  seen  on  the  march.  These  were  suspended 
on  the  shoulders  by  means  of  thongs,  or  held  in  the  hand  by  a  handle, 
either  horizontally  or  vertically."'^ 


'  Ancient  Egyptians,  Vol.  I,  p.  345.  The  same  author  tells  us  that  "when  in  battle, 
a  general  had  a  number  of  attendants  in  readiness  (see  Homer,  Iliad,  B.  IV,  v.  226- 
231),  whenever  he  dismounted  from  his  car,  to  lead  his  troops  over  hilly  and  precipi- 


46 


EGYPTIAN   WOBLB    ON  WHEELS. 


The  Egyptians  appear  to  have  had  baggage-carts  for  the  conveyance 
of  war  material,  much  like  those  in  common  use  by  the  paviers  of  mod- 
ern cities.  The  annexed  engraving  is  copied  from  a  bass-relief  found 
on  an  Egyptian  monument,  having  a  very  high  six-spoked  wheel  and 
a  curved-roof  l)ox.     In  front  of  the  box  is  a  low  seat,  from  underneath 


Egyptian    Baggage-cart 


which  protrudes  a  crooked  drag-pole.  This  cart  or  baggage-wagon 
seems  to  have  been  very  well  adapted  for  the  purpose  designed,  and 
was  probably  drawn  by  hand  over  the  battle-field  and  in  short  marches. 
The  design  appears  to  have  given  some  writers  much  trouble  in  assign- 
ino-  to  it  its  proper  use.  A  little  reflection  ought  to  have  settled  that 
question  long  ago. 

The  next  illustration  is  copied  from  a  bass-relief  which  exhibits 
Menepthah  III  in  procession  to  the  temple  of  Amun,  to  return  thanks 
for  success  in  battle.  The  chariots,  although  belonging  to  the  same 
monarch,  are  of  very  different  model,  the  rounded  corner  being  in 
front  instead  of  back.  The  chariot  in  advance  is  managed  by  a  sacer- 
dotal personage  carrying  a  standard,  on  which  is  fixed  the  likeness  of 
the  god,  the  whole  being  guarded  by  soldiers.  The  king's  chariot 
comes  next.  The  horses  are  carefully  and  tastefully  furnished  with 
blankets  and  other  trappings.     The  driving-reins  run  through  a  kind 


tous  heights  inaccessible  to  chariots,  to  the  assault  of  fortiflecl  towns  or  for  any  other 
purpose.  They  took  charge  of  the  horses,  and  keeping  them  in  some  secure  place, 
they  awaited  his  return  or  followed  at  a  short  distance ;  and  a  second  car,  with  fresh 
horses,  was  always  ready  in  the  rear,  in  order  to  provide  against  accident,  or  the  still 
less  welcome  chance  of  defeat."  King  Josiah,  at  the  battle  in  the  valley  of  Megiddo, 
being  wounded,  "was  put  into  the  second  chariot  that  he  had;  and  they  brought  him 
to  Jerusalem."  —  2  Chron.,  ch.  xxxv,  v.  24. 


MENEPTHATI   TTT   VISITS   AMVN. 


47 


48  EGYPTIAN   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

of  turret,  and  are  held  by  the  king  very  gracefully.  A  dog  is  seen  in 
the  procession,  trotting  along  at  an  easy  pace,  seemingly  well  pleased 
with  the  surroundings. 

Wilkinson  says  that  "  when  the  victorious  monarch,  returning  to 
Egypt  after  a  glorious  campaign,  approached  the  cities  which  lay  in 
his  way  from  the  confines  of  the  country  to  the  capital,  the  inhabitants 
flocked  to  meet  him,  and  with  welcome  acclamations  greeted  his  arrival 
and  the  success  of  his  arms.  The  priests  and  chief  people  of  each 
place  advanced  with  garlands  and  bouquets  of  flowers ;  the  principal 
persons  present  addressed  him  in  an  appropriate  manner ;  and  as  the 
troops  defiled  through  the  streets  or  passed  without  the  walls,  the 
people  followed  with  acclamations,  uttering  earnest  thanksgivings  to 
the  gods,  the  protectors  of  Egypt,  and  praying  them  forever  to  con- 
tinue the  same  marks  of  favor  to  their  monarch  and  their  nation. 

"Arrived  at  their  capital,  they  went  immediately  to  the  temple, 
where  they  returned  thanks  to  the  gods,  and  performed  the  customary 
sacrifices  on  this  important  occasion.  The  whole  army  attended,  and 
the  order  of  march  continued  the  same  as  on  entering  the  city.  A 
corps  of  Egyptians,  consisting  of  chariots  and  infantry,  led  the  van  in 
close  column,  followed  hj  the  allies  of  the  difierent  nations  who  had 
shared  in  the  dangers  of  the  field  and  the  honor  of  the  victory.  In  the 
center  marched  the  body-guards,  the  king's  sons,  the  military  scribes, 
the  royal  arm-bearers,  and  the  stafl-corps,  in  the  midst  of  which  was 
the  monarch  himself,  mounted  in  a  splendid  car,  attended  by  his  fan- 
bearers  on  foot  holding  over  him  the  state  flabella.  Next  followed 
other  regiments  of  infantry  with  their  respective  banners,  and  the  rear 
was  closed  by  a  body  of  chariots.  The  prisoners,  tied  together  with 
ropes,  were  conducted  by  some  of  the  king's  sons,  or  by  the  chief 
officers  of  the  stafi",  at  the  side  of  the  royal  car.  The  king  himself 
frequently  held  the  cord  which  bound  them,  as  he  drove  slowly  in  the 
procession ;  and  two  or  more  chiefs  were  sometimes  suspended  beneath 
the  axle  of  his  chariot,  contrary  to  the  usual  humane  principles  of  the 
Egyptians,  who  seem  to  have  refrained  from  unnecessary  cruelty  to 
their  captives,  extending  this  feeling  so  far  as  to  rescue,  even  in  the 
heat  of  l)attle,  a  defenseless  enemy  from  a  watery  grave. ^ 

"Having  reached  the  precincts  of  the  temple,  the  guards  and  royal 

'  For  an  illustration  of  this  practice,  see  page  30. 


SPOILS   OF   VICTORY   OFFERED   TO  AMUN.  49 

attendants,  selected  to  be  representatives  of  the  whole  army,  entered 
the  courts,  the  rest  of  the  troops,  too  numerous  for  admission,  being 
drawn  up  before  the  entrance,  and  the  king,  alighting  from  the  car, 
prepared  to  lead  his  captives  to  the  shrine  of  the  god.  Military  bands 
played  the  favorite  airs  of  the  country,  and  the  numerous  standards  of 
the  diiFerent  regiments,  the  banners  floating  in  the  wind,  the  bright 
luster  of  arms,  the  immense  concourse  of  people,  and  the  grandeur  of 
the  lofty  towers  of  the  temple,  decked  in  their  bright-colored  flags 
streaming  above  the  cornice,  presented  an  imposing  scene.  But  the 
most  striking  feature  of  this  pompous  ceremony  was  the  brilliant  cor- 
tege of  the  monarch,  who  was  either  borne  in  his  chair  of  state  under 
a  rich  canopy,  or  walked  on  foot,  overshadowed  with  rich  flabella  or 
fans  of  waving  plumes.  As  he  approached  the  inner  gateway,  a  long 
procession  of  priests  advanced  to  meet  him,  dressed  in  their  robes  of 
office,  censers  full  of  incense  were  burnt  before  him,  and  a  sacred 
scribe  read  from  a  papyrus  roll  the  glorious  deeds  of  the  victorious 
monarch,  and  the  tokens  he  had  received  of  the  divine  favor.  They 
then  accompanied  him  into  the  presence  of  the  presiding  deity  of  the 
place,  and  having  performed  sacrifice  and  otfered  suitable  thanksgiv- 
ings, he  dedicated  the  spoil  of  the  conquered  enemy,  and  expressed  his 
gratitude  for  the  privilege  of  laying  before  the  feet  of  the  god,  the 
giver  of  victory,  those  prisoners  he  had  brought  to  the  vestibule  of  the 
divine  abode. 

"In  the  mean  time  the  troops  without  the  sacred  precincts  were 
summoned  by  sound  of  trumpet  to  attend  the  sacrifice  prepared  by  the 
priests,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  army,  for  the  benefits  they  had 
received  from  the  gods,  the  success  of  their  arms,  and  their  OAvn 
preservation  in  the  hour  of  danger.  Each  regiment  marched  up  by 
turn  to  the  altar  temporarily  raised  for  the  occasion,  to  the  sound  of 
the  drum,  the  soldiers  carrying  in  their  hands  a  twig  of  olive,  with  the 
arms  of  their  respective  corps ;  but  the  heavy-armed  soldier  laid  aside 
his  shield  on  this  occasion,  as  if  to  show  the  security  he  enjoyed  in  the 
presence  of  the  deity.  An  ox  was  then  killed,  and  wine,  incense,  and 
the  customary  oflferings  of  cakes,  fruits,  vegetables,  joints  of  meat,  and 
birds  were  presented  to  the  god.  Every  soldier  deposited  the  twig  of 
olive  he  carried  at  the  altar,  and  as  the  trumpet  summoned  them,  so 
also  it  fjave  the  sisrual  for  each  reo'iment  to  withdraw,  and  cede  its 
place  to  another.  The  ceremony  being  over,  the  king  went  in  state  to 
4  *. 


50 


EGYPTIAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


his  palace,  accompanied  by  the  troops,  and  having  distributed  rcAvards 
to  them,  and  eulogized  their  conduct  in  the  field,  he  gave  his  orders  to 
commanders  of  the  dificrcnt  corps,  and  they  withdrew  to  their  canton- 
ments, or  to  the  duties  to  which  they  were  appointed."  i 

The  same  author  says  that  "  the  Egyptians  frequently  coursed  with 
dogs  in  the  open  plains,  the  chasseur  following  in  his  chariot  and  the 
huntsman  on  foot.  Sometimes  he  only  drove  to  cover  in  his  car,  and 
having  alighted,   shared  in  the  toil  of  searching  for  the  game,  his 

attendants 
keeping  the 
dogs  in  slips, 
ready  to  start 
them  as  soon 
as  it  ap- 
peared. The 
more  usual 
custom,when 
the  do 
threw 

a  level  plain 
of  great  ex- 
tent, was  for 
him  to  remain 
in  his  chariot, 

and  urging  his  horses  to  their  full  speed,  endeavor  to  turn  or  intercept 
them  as  they  doubled,  discharging  a  well-directed  arrow  whenever 
they  came  within  its  range. 

"  The  dogs  were  taken  to  the  ground  by  persons  expressly  employed 
for  that  purpose  and  for  all  the  duties  connected  with  the  kennel,  and 
were  either  started  one  by  one,  or  in  pairs,  in  the  narrow  valleys  or 
open  plains  ;  and  when  crossing  on  foot,  the  chasseur  and  his  attendant 
huntsmen,  acquainted  with  the  direction  and  sinuosities  of  the  torrent 
beds,  shortened  the  road  as  they  followed  across  the  intervening  hills, 
and  sought  a  favorable  opportunity  for  using  the  bow,  or  enjoyed  the 
course  of  the  level  space  between  them. 

"  Having  pursued  on  foot,  and  arrived  at  the  spot  where  the  dogs 


6"^ 
off  in 


1  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  Vol.  I,  pp.  277-279. 


BOYALTY  IN  PURSUIT  OF  GAME.  51 

had  caught  their  prey,  the  huntsman,  if  alone,  took  up  the  game,  tied 
its  legs  together,  and  hanging  it  over  his  shoulders,  once  more  led  by 
the  hand  the  coupled  dogs,  in  precisely  the  same  manner  as  the  Arabs 
do  at  the  present  day.  But  this  was  generally  the  office  of  persons 
who  carried  the  cages  and  baskets  on  the  usual  wooden  yoke,  and  who 
took  charge  of  the  game  as  soon  as  it  was  caught,  the  substitutes  for 
our  game-carts  being  in  proportion  to  the  proposed  range  of  the  chase 
and  the  number  of  head  they  expected  to  kill.  Sometimes  an  ibex, 
oryx,  or  wild  ox,  being  closely  pressed  by  the  hounds,  faced  round 
and  kept  them  at  bay  with  its  formidable  horns,  and  the  spear  of  the 
huntsman  as  he  came  up  was  required  to  decide  the  success  of  the 
chase.  It  frequently  happened,  when  the  chasseur  had  many  attend- 
ants, and  the  district  to  be  hunted  was  extensive,  that  they  divided 
into  parties,  each  taking  one  or  more  dogs,  and  starting  them  on 
whatever  animal  broke  cover.  Sometimes  they  went  without  hounds, 
merely  having  a  small  dog  for  searching  the  bushes,  or  laid  in  wait  for 
the  larger  and  more  formidable  animals,  and  attacked  them  with  the 
lance." ^ 

About  fifty-seven  years  later  (B.  C.  1474),  Eameses  IV  occupied 
the  throne  of  Egypt,  he  being  placed  in  the  nineteenth  dynasty  by 
historians.  The  series  of  pictures  illustrative  of  his  deeds  on  the  walls 
of  an  Egyptian  temple  are  numerous.  One  represents  the  monarch  in 
his  chariot  on  a  lion  hunt,  one  animal  being  represented  laying  on  his 
back,  while  another  is  seen  plunging  into  the  forest,  both  having  darts 
fastened  in  their  bodies.  The  king's  chariot  differs  in  model  from 
the  one  used  by  Menepthah  III,  the  front  end  standing  nearly  perpen- 
dicular, and  having  a  rounded  back  corner,  with  a  very  small  opening 
in  the  side  panel.  In  one  of  these  pictures  the  king  sits  at  ease  in  his 
chariot,  with  his  back  turned  towards  the  horses,  while  the  scribes 
number  the  slain  in  a  late  victory,  by  counting  the  severed  hands,  now 
collected  for  the  purpose  into  one  heap. 

Some  of  these  bass-reliefs,  in  imitation  of  his  predecessors,  represent 
Eameses  IV,  according  to  Egyptian  custom,  as  offering  his  victims  to 
Amun.  One  of  these  depicts  a  solemn  procession  on  its  march  to  the 
sacred  temple,  some  of  the  captives,  either  dead  or  alive,  being  slung 
under  the  body  of  the  royal  chariot,  others  manacled  being  marched 

'  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Ugyj^tians,  Vol.  I,  p.  218. 


52 


EGYPTIAN   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


aloiio-  in  the  most  humiliating  attitudes  the  victorious  rulers  could  pos- 
sibly devise.  Of  the  humane  character  of  the  Egyptians  we  have 
before  taken  notice,  and  in  the  absence  of  testimony  to  the  contrarj-, 


charity  leads  us  to  conclude  that  the  victims  under  the  chariot  were 
killed  in  battle,  and  only  shown  on  such  occasions  as  trophies  of  suc- 
cess, however  inexcusable  such  a  display  would  be  at  the  present  day. 
That  some  of  the  Egyptian  rulers  were  cruel  will  scarcely  admit  of  a 


BATTLE-SCENE  FBOM  LUXOB  DESCBIBED.  53 

doubt.  Diodorus  tells  us  that  "  Sesostris  [Rameses  III]  tarnished  his 
glory  by  an  act  of  great  oppression,  compelling  captive  monarchs  to  draw 
his  chariot  as  he  proceeded  to  celebrate  his  triumphs "  ;  and  the  Theban 
artist,  as  we  find  in  the  illustration  on  the  opposite  page,  has  not  been 
ashamed  to  introduce  the  representation  of  a  faulty  custom  in  bass- 
relief  on  the  walls  of  the  palace  at  Medeenet  Hab6o.  In  this  charge 
of  cruelty  Diodorus  is  indorsed  by  Pliny  and  others. i 

The  next  illustration,  representing  a  battle-scene,  is  copied  from  a 
bass-relief  on  the  walls  of  the  Temple  of  Luxor,  Thebes.^  It  bears 
unequivocal  evidence  of  having  been  executed  with  much  pains,  as  far 
as  finished.  The  body  of  the  chariot  is  altogether  difierent  from  any 
yet  given  in  this  volume,  having  the  form  of  a  crucible  with  an  exten- 
sion front,  to  permit  the  occupants  to  escape  more  easily  in  case  of 
danger.  Indeed,  an  examination  impresses  the  mind  with  an  idea  that 
this  might  be  the  work  of  a  potter  instead  of  a  chariot-maker,  lacking 
entirely  those  exterior  ornaments  we  are  accustomed  to  find  in  the 
chariots  of  previous  years.  Even  the  bow-string  and  arrow  are 
needed  to  complete  the  picture  of  a  warlike  hero.  The  head-gear  and 
other  trappings  of  the  horses  are  likewise  missing,  the  details  seem- 
ingly being  too  tedious  a  labor  for  the  artist. 

1  Diodorus  Siculus,  Lib.  I,  v.  58,  and  Pliny,  Lib.  XXXIII,  v.  15,  the  latter  of  whom 
writes:  '^  Sesostri  JEgypti  rege  tarn  superbo,  ut  prodatior  armis  qidbusque  sorte  reges 
singulos  e  subjectis pungere  currum  solitus  atque  ita  triumphare."  Herodotus,  who  writes 
from  personal  inspection,  tells  us  that  this  king  (Sesostris)  employed  a  great  number 
of  captives  in  digging  canals,  by  which  involuntary  labor  Egypt,  which  before  was 
practicable  throughout,  was  rendered  unflt  for  horses  and  carriages.  Herodotus,  B. 
II,  108. 

*  From  "  Description  de  I'Egypte,  ou  Recueil  des  Observations  et  des  Recherches 
qui  out  ete  faites  en  Egypte  pendant  I'Expedition  de  I'armee  Frangaise.  Public  par  les 
ordres  de  sa  Majeste  I'Empereur  le  Grand.  A  Paris,  de  I'lmprimerie  Imperiale,  1812." 
The  ruins  of  the  Temple  of  Luxor  now  present  but  the  mere  skeleton  of  the  original 
edifice,  standing  on  an  elevated  foundation,  ten  feet  high,  walled  in  with  brick.  It 
appears  originally  to  have  been  eight  hundred  feet  long  and  two  hundred  and  eight 
feet  broad,  located  ou  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Nile,  near  the  river.  This  once  grand 
and  imposing  structure  was  erected  by  Rameses  II  and  Menepthah  III.  Some  have 
supposed  the  ruins  the  remains  of  a  temple,  others  of  a  palace.  On  the  front  of  the 
principal  entrance  are  shown  in  bass-reliefs  the  picture  on  the  next  page.  Although 
defective  in  some  respects,  they  have  been  ranked  high  as  sculptures  in  the  catalogue 
of  art,  being  cut  in  relief  of  a  peculiar  kind,  at  a  later  date  than  any  of  the  preceding, 
to  commemorate  the  victories  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  over  some  foreign  enemy,  but 
whether  Indian,  Persian,  or  Bactrian  has  never  been  satisfactorily  determined.  The 
fallen  victim  being  naked  would  seem  to  indicate  that  he  belonged  to  some  very  warm 
climate,  probably  Africa. 


54 


EGYPTIAN    WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 


CHARIOTS   CAP  TUBED  FBOM  THE  BOT-U-N. 


55 


Chariot   of  the   Rot-u-n. 


Another  chariot  of  more  solid  construction,  captured  from  some 
contemporary  nation  with  whom  the  Egyptians  carried  on  a  warfare 
(probably  known  as 
the  Rot-u-n),  differed 
very  much  from  the 
Egyptian.  The  mode 
of  hitching  the  horses 
to  the  car  (even  if  the 
number  was  three,  in- 
stead  of  two,  as  after- 
wards used  by  the  Gre- 
cians) was  altogether 
unlike  that  of  their  cap- 
tors, as  is  proved  from 
the  singular  formation 
of  the  yoke  attached 
to  the  pole  in  the 
hands  of  the  negro. 

Our  research  into  Egyptian  history  has  hitherto  discovered  little 
else  than  chariots.  There  have,  however,  been  discovered  one  or  two 
exceptions,  among  these  a  kind  of  plaustrum,  of  which  we  furnish  an 
engraving.  The  manner  of  construction  is  very  much  like  that  of  the 
war-chariot,  the  side  being  two  thirds  closed,  similar  to  the  chariots 
of  a  later  age.  Here  oxen  take  the  place  of  horses.  The  bow-case 
evinces  that  even  in  ancient  times  it  was  necessary  to  carry  arms  as  a 
protection  against  the  assaults  of  highwaymen.  The  harness  and  j^ole 
were  much  the  same  as  those  used  with  the  war-chariots.  Besides  the 
driver,  a  groom  sometimes  attended  the  vehicle  on  foot  to  take  care 
of  the  team.  The  picture  represents  him  as  feeding  the  animals  even 
while  on  the  march.  When  traveling,  the  vehicle  was  furnished  with 
an  umbrella  for  the  protection  of  the  passenger  against  the  intense 
rays  of  the  sun.  Umbrellas  were  seldom  used  for  any  other  purpose, 
the  scarcity  of  rain  and  the  dryness  of  an  Egyptian  climate  being  pro- 
verbial.^    The  picture  under  consideration  may  possibly  represent  an 

'  Rain  is  almost  unknown  in  Upper  Egypt,  and  formerly  it  never  rained  more  than 
five  or  six  times  in  the  year  on  the  delta  of  the  Nile.  Mehemet  Ali,  the  viceroy, 
recently  caused  twenty  million  trees  to  be  planted  on  this  delta;  the  result  is,  the 
rainy  days  have  since  increased  to  forty. 


56 


EGYPTIAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


IGTPTIAN     PLAUSTRHM. 


Ethiopian  chariot  conveying  an  Etliiopian   princess    through    Upper 

Egypt  on  the  way  to  Thebes,  where  tlie   court  then  resided ;    but 

^■'■■^TTT/'^r-  whether  it  was 

4^mmMPM-  o^^  *i^^  occa- 

^,,^,_  ^  sion  or  her  pro- 

jected mar- 
riage with  Me- 
neptliah  III 
(B.  C.  1496), 
or  merely  to 
pay  homage  to 
him,  is  uncer- 
tain. In  the 
original  bass- 
relief  from 
which  the 
plaustrum  was 

selected,  a  large  tribute  is  represented  as  being  brought  from  her 
countrymen  —  the  Cush  —  along  with  her,  which  seems  to  indicate 
that  it  relates  to  some  visit  of  ceremony  from  a  queen  or  princess  of 
note.  The  fact  that  the  charioteer  and  some  other  of  the  attendants 
are  unmistakably  Egyptian,  suggests  that  the  vehicle  had  been  provided 
by  some  monarch  for  this  special  occasion,  as  was  done  when  Joseph, 
at  the  instigation  of  Pharaoh,  sent  for  Jacob  and  his  family  to  bring 
them  into  Egypt.'  In  the  Book  of  Genesis  these  plaustri  are  called 
wagons^  by  the  translators.  Such  were  commonly  used  in  Egypt  for 
traveling  purposes.  Strabo  appears  to  have  performed  the  journey 
from  Syrene,  to  the  spot  where  he  crossed  the  river  to  visit  Philse,  in 
one  of  these  vehicles.  Besides  the  plaustri,  the  Egyptians  had  the 
palanquin,  with  a  canopy  overhead,  which  was  borne  on  the  shoulders 
of  slaves  accustomed  to  such  service. 

In  the  Florentine  Museum,  Italy,  there  is,  in  good  preservation,  a 
genuine  Egyptian  chariot,  composed  of  birch  and  iron,  of  which  we 
give  a  correct  representation  on  a  reduced  scale.  The  sides  are 
entirely  open,  the  floor  being  composed  of  rushes  or  flags,  something 
after  the  pattern  in  which  our  ancestors  bottomed  their  kitchen-chairs. 


'  Gen.,  ch.  xlv,  v.  16  et  seq. 


Gen.,  ch.  xlv,  v.  19,  20;  also,  Gen.,  ch.  xliv,  v.  5. 


CHAEIOT  WHEEL  FliOM  A   MUMMY-PIT. 


57 


An  ingeniously  applied  piece  of  wood  at  the  ends  of  the  bottom-rail 
serves  to  bind  the  bottom-side  and  the  cross-bar  firmly  together,  while 

it  furnishes  additional 
solidity  to  the  tenons 
of  the  rave.  The 
warrior's  bow  is  shown 
standing  upright  in 
the  car.  The  yoke 
at  the  end  of  the  pole 
is  exhibited  on  a  lar- 
ger scale  on  page 
38.  This  chariot 
unquestionably  be- 
longs to  a  much  later 

Chariot   rnoM   the   Florentine  Museum.  Ijeriod    than    anv   WC 

have  yet  introduced  to  the  reader,  —  probably  to  the  Ptolemaic  age. 

To  somewhere  about  B.  C.  300  belong  the  old  fragments  of  an 
Egyptian  chariot  found  by  Dr.  H.  Abbot  in  a  mummy-pit  at  Dashour, 
now  preserved  among  the  Egyptian  curiosities  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society  in  New  York  City,  consisting  of  a  wheel  and  its  wooden 
shoeing,  the  back  end  of  the  shafts,  one  side  and  one  end  rail  of  the 
body.  All  these  we  have  had 
engraved  from  photographs 
taken  on  the  block,  with  such 
perfection  that  every  mortise, 
tenon,  and  joint  is  truthfully 
preserved  in  the  copies. 

The  wheel  is  two  feet  eleven 
inches  high  without,  and  three 
feet  three  inches  with,  the 
wooden  tire,  as  restored  on 
page  60.  The  hub,  which  is 
fourteen  and  a  half  inches  long, 
five  inches  through  the  middle, 
and  four  and  a  half  inches  at 
the  ends,  has  not  the  least 
appearance  of  ever  having  been 
burdened  with   an    iron   box;  ancient  Egyptian  wheel. 


58  EGYPTIAN-   WOBLD   OW  WHEELS. 

and  the  jagged  ends,  particularly  the  front  one,  look  as  though  they  had 
undergone  many  hard  rubbings  from  the  linchpin,  probably  a  wooden 
one,  while  revolving  around  an  axle-tree.  This  axle-tree,  allowing  for 
wear,  was  about  two  and  three  quarters  inches  at  the  front  end  of  the  hub. 
The  hub,  which  looks  as  though  it  had  been  turned  in  a  lathe,  is  very 
much  split,  the  effects  of  very  hard  usage.  There  are  several  "creases" 
in  the  hub,  such  as  imprudent  hub-manufacturers  still  turn,  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  the  wheelwright  where  to  set  the  fronts  of  his 
spokes.  In  this  wheel  there  is  ample  proof  that  some  ancient  ones 
rotated  around  the  axle,  and  not  with  it,  as  some  modern  writers 
would  have  us  believe,  and  who  probably  have  been  misled  by 
studying  the  bass-reliefs,  which  in  many  cases  seem  to  favor  such  a 
conclusion. 

The  spokes  —  we  give  a  side  view  of  one  —  have  a  very  peculiar 
finish,  highly  ornamental.  The  photographer  and  engraver  have  both 
so  faithfully  executed  their  respective  parts  (as  the  reader 
may  see)  that  the  file-marks  and  indentations  of  the  original 
have  been  successfully  shown  on  the  paper.  Near  the  bottom 
of  the  spokes,  all  around,  are  spike-shaped  mortises,  the  uses 
(if  any  other  than  ornamental  they  had)  of  which  we  are  at  a 
loss  to  conjecture.  They  may,  as  some  suppose,  have  been 
made  for  the  insertion  of  some  kind  of  a  brace  for  strength- 
ening the  wheel ;  but  a  close  inspection  of  the  mortises  in  this 
instance  has  not  at  all  satisfied  us  that  any  such  brace  was 
ever  employed.  The  mortise  is  two  and  a  half  inches  long, 
the  narrower  portion  of  which  is  three  eighths  of  an  inch  wide, 
and  the  wider  seven  eighths,  located  one  and  three  eighths 
ili|iH|H  inches  alDove  the  shoulder  at  the  hul).  The  tenon  at  the 
|l|i|Ol  hub  is  one  and  a  half  by  three  eighths  of  an  inch,  and,  as  may 
iOilM  |-,Q  ol^served  in  the  engraving,  is  a  little  rounding  at  the 
shoulder.  But  that  which  strikes  the  eye  of  the  practical 
mechanic  most  forcibly  is,  it  has  a  square  "tang"  where  it 
enters  the  felloe, — a  thing  known  to  the  ancients,  but  now 
chiefly  confined  to  the  heavier  class  of  work.  The  diameter  of  the  spoke 
at  the  periphery  of  the  hub  measures  two  by  one  and  three  eighths 
inches,  rounded  in  the  old-fashioned  manner,  and  apparently  "finished" 
with  a  very  coarse-cut  file.  The  tenons  for  the  felloes  are  one  inch 
square,   passing  only  about  two  thirds  the  distance  through  at  the 


WOODEN   TIBE  APPLIED   TO   WHEELS.  59 

intersection  of  the  lapped  joints.  There  is  no  evidence  thcat  an  auger 
was  ever  used  in  making  mortises  in  the  wheels  or  in  any  of  the  other 
fragments  of  this  collection.  Had  such  been  the  case,  traces  thereof 
would  be  found  in  the  bottoms  of  the  mortises,  especially  those  in  the 
felloes  which  do  not  extend  through. 

The  felloes  next  claim  our  attention  —  and  such  felloes  !  The  wear 
and  tear  the  wheel  has  undergone  lends  enchantment  to  the  picture. 
These  felloes,  six  in  number,  meeting  at  the  point  of  intersection  with 
the  spokes,  as  shown  on  page  57,  are  laid  on  overlapping  each  other, 
and  are  bound  to  the  spokes  by  simple  pressure  from  the  wooden  tire. 
These  felloes,  "got  out"  one  and  a  half  by  one  and  a  quarter  inches, 
are  about  three  sixteenths  of  an  inch  "half  rounded  down"  on  the 
sides. 

The  tire-shoeing  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  our  modern  felloes, 
except  that  instead  of  dowels  they  are  connected  by  a  male  and  female 
joint,  extending  from  the  in- 
side to  two  thirds  of  the  depth 
of  the  tire  outward,  so  that  it 
is  hidden  at  the  tread  of  the 
wheel.  This  tire  is  divided 
into  six  sections,  forming  as 
many  joints,  meeting,  when 
placed  around  the  wheel,  half- 
way between  the  spokes,  hav- 
ing twenty-five  narrow  mor- 
tises alono;  the  inner  edo;e, 
varying  from  two  and  a  quar- 
ter to  two  and  three  quar- 
ters inches  in  width.  These 
mortises  doubtless  were  made 

/;»         J.1  V  •  Wooden   Tire. 

lor   the   purpose    oi    securmg 

this  tire  upon  the  wheel  by  strips  of  hide  or  other  flexible  material, 
which  not  only  served  in  securing  the  tire  to  the  felloes,  but  likewise 
answered  the  purpose  of  binding  the  felloe  more  firmly  at  the  joints, 
where,  as  contrived,  some  such  provision  was  much  required.  The 
"tread"  of  this  tire  is  one  and  a  quarter  inches  wide,  and  the  tire 
itself  is  two  inches  deep,  looking  as  though  it  had  seen  much  rough 
service   over  hard  roads.     This  wheel  we  have  put  together  as  we 


60 


EGYPTIAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


suppose  it  was  originally  when 
in  use.  With  the  wooden  tire 
"set"  it  stands  three  feet  three 
inches  high,  and  is  full  as  low 
as  any  wheel  ever  ought  to  be 
constructed  for  practical  pur- 
poses. The  shoeing  is  decid- 
edly unique  and  interesting, 
no  evidence  of  the  use  of  iron 
in  any  form  being  found 
thereon.  1 

The  next  engraving  repre- 
sents the  rear  portion  of  the 
thills,  the  mortised  end,  when 
in  place,  being  fastened  under 
the  front  end  of  the  chaviot 
body.  Poles,  originally  attached  to  the  sharpened  ends,  constituted  a 
pair  of  shafts  for  a  one-horse  vehicle,  which  this  chariot  manifestly 
was.  The  camera,  faithful  to  the  original,  as  with  the  other  relics, 
has  not  only  given  us  the  Ule-marks  and  position  of  the  mortises,  but 
the  engraver  has  so  skillfully  done  his  work  that  in  our  picture  even 
the  color  of  the  wood  has  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  paper  in  printing.  At 
the  back  end  this  fragment  is  two  by 
three  inches  in  diameter,  with  three 
mortises  each,  respectively  one  and  a 
quarter,  one  and  three  eighths,  and  one 
and  a  half  inches  long,  by  half  an  inch 
wide.  Wilkinson  says  that  the  shafts  complete  were  eleven  feet  long, 
which  is  reconcilable  with  the  use  of  low  Avhecls. 


Completed  C  ii  a  k 


Fragment  of  Shafts. 


^  Iron  was  certainly  known  to  the  ancients,  there  being  an  Egyptian  anvil  in  the 
British  Museum  precisely  of  the  form  now  made,  supposed  to  be  over  three  thousand 
years  old.  That  it  was  invented  to  the  injury  of  mankind  is  thus  shown  by  an  old 
writer:  "Lichas,  a  Spartan,  coming  to  a  smith  at  Togea,  looked  attentively  at  the 
iron  being  forged,  and  Avas  struck  with  Avondcr  when  he  saw  what  was  done.  .  .  . 
Seeing  the  smith's  two  bellows,  he  discovered  in  them  the  two  winds,  and  in  the  anvil 
and  hammer  the  stroke  answering  to  stroke,  and  the  iron  that  was  being  forged,  the 
woe  that  lay  on  woe,  representing  in  this  way  that  iron  had  been  invented  to  the 
injury  of  man."  —  Herodotus,  B.  I,  68. 


FRAGMENTS    OF  AN  EGYPTIAN   CHAIUOT.  Gl 

We  now  come  to  two  fragments  believed  to  represent  an  end  and 
side  rave  of  a  chariot  body.  The  next  engraving  probably  represents 
an  end  rave  with  one  of  the  tenons  broken  off.  This  is  two  feet  and 
and  one  and  three  quarters  inches  wide,  with  eight 
mortises  of  various  widths 
ranged  along  the  lower 
edge.     The  tenons  at  the 

CHAKIOT     END     RAVE.  ^^^^^   ^^^^,^    ^^^^    ^^^    ^    ^^^.^^._ 

ter  of  an  inch.  A  short  distance  from  the  tenons  there  are  round 
holes  three  eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  possibly  for  the  insertion 
of  cords,  which,  passing  around  the  ends  of  the  side  raves,  bound  the 
whole  firmly  together.  This  was  necessary,  since  a  very  light  tenon 
was  used,  to  avoid  cutting  away  the  rave  in  mortising.  The  curve  in 
this  rave  is  five  inches,  measured  on  a  straight  line  with  the  inner  side. 
The  duty  assigned  to  the  remaining  fragment  has  somewhat  puzzled 
us,  but  we  conjecture  that  it  represents  the  side  rave.  One  very 
strong  reason  for  this  conjecture  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  tenon  at 
the  end  of  the  end  rave 
(see  above)  and  the  mor- 
tise   in    the    side    rave 

.    ,  ,,  .  Chariot 

match  exactly,  provmg 
that  it  belonged  to  the  same  chariot.  This  rave  is  likewise  pierced 
with  twelve  mortises  ranged  along  the  lower  edge,  as  in  the  other  rave. 
The  notch  near  the  end,  at  the  left  hand,  has  been  gashed  to  prevent 
the  slipping  of  the  cord  used  in  giving  additional  support  to  the  joint 
at  the  corner. 

The  timber  in  all  these  fragments  is  of  the  hardest  and  heaviest 
kind,  so  very  solid  that  time  and  the  worm  seem  to  have  made  very 
little  impression  on  them.  As  there  was  no  timber  grown  in  Egypt, 
this  must  have  been  imported  from  some  other  country,  but  of  what 
species  it  is  we  are  not  able  to  decide. 

The  chariots  of  the  Egyptians  were  built  extremely  light,  particu- 
larly the  body,  which  had  a  painted  frame-work  strengthened  and 
ornamented  with  metal  and  leather  bindings,  like  many  described  in 
Homer,  resting  on  an  axle-tree  and  the  back  end  of  the  i3ole,  which 
last  was  mortised  into  the  axle-tree  or  a  socket  attached  to  it.  Some 
chariots  are  shown  by  the  monuments  to  have  been  inlaid  with  silver 
and  gold,  others  painted ;  the  latter,  as  might  be  expected  the  most 


62  EGYPTIAN  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

numerous,  sixty-one  of  them  being  mentioned  to  nine  of  the  former. 
The  front  was  strapped  to  the  pole  to  steady  it,  and  when  the  horses 
were  taken  out,  the  pole  was  supported  on  a  crutch,  or  the  wooden 
figure  of  a  man,  representing  a  captive  or  enemy  who  Avas  thought 
fitting  for  this  degrading  office.  The  greater  portion  of  the  sides  and 
the  whole  of  the  back  were  open,  the  latter,  indeed,  entirely  so, 
without  any  frame-work  above.  The  hinder  portion  of  the  frame- 
work of  the  body  commenced  nearly  in  a  line  with  the  center  of  the 
wheel,  and  rising  perpendicularly,  or  very  slightly  inclining  back- 
wards, from  the  base  of  the  car,  extended  with  a  curved  or  rounded 
back  corner,  at  the  height  of  about  two  feet  and  a  half  to  the  front, 
serving  as  well  for  a  safeguard  to  the  quiver  and  bow-case  as  to  the 
rider.  To  strengthen  it,  three  thongs  of  leather  attached  to  each  side, 
and  an  upright  piece  of  wood  connected  it  with  the  base  of  the  front 
part  immediately  above  the  pole  where  the  straps  before  mentioned 
were  fastened.  The  bow-case,  as  previously  shown,  was  frequently 
ornamented  with  the  figure  of  some  animal  or  other  device,  and  was 
placed  in  an  inclined  position  pointing  in  a  foreign  direction  with  the 
flexible  frame-work  of  the  chariot,  so  that  when  the  bow  was  drawn 
out  the  leather  covering  fell  down  and  left  the  upper  part  of  the 
chariot  body  an  uninterrupted  level.  In  battle  this  was  of  course  a 
matter  of  small  importance ;  but  in  the  city,  where  the  bow-case  was 
considered  an  elegant  part  of  the  ornamental  hangings  of  a  car,  and 
continued  to  be  attached  to  it,  they  paid  some  attention  to  the  position 
and  fall  of  the  pendent  cover,  deprived,  as  it  there  was,  of  its  bow ; 
for  the  civilized  state  of  Egyptian  society  required  the  absence  of  all 
arms  except  when  in  actual  service.  The  quivers  and  spear-cases 
were  suspended  in  a  contrary  direction,  pointing  backwards.  Some- 
times an  additional  quiver  was  attached  close  to  the  bow-case,  with  a 
mace  and  other  arms,  and  every  war-chariot  containing  two  men  had 
the  same  number  of  them. 

In  the  days  of  Solomon  chariots  and  horses  were  exported  from 
Egypt  into  Judea  and  Syria.  The  Hittites  were  also  supplied  from 
the  same  source.^     No  drawing  of  a  chariot  has  been  discovered  on 

^  "  And  Solomon  had  horses  brought  out  of  Egypt.  .  .  .  And  a  chariot  came  up 
and  went  out  of  Egypt  for  six  hundred  shekels  of  silver,  and  an  horse  for  an  hundred 
and  fifty ;  and  so  for  all  the  kings  of  the  Hittites,  and  for  the  kings  of  Syria,  did  they 
bring  them  out  by  their  means." —  1  Kings,  ch.  x,  v.  28,  29. 


BEAUTY  OF  EGYPTIAN  HORSES.  63 

any  Egyptian  monument  dating  further  ba<;k  than  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  B.  C.  1822.  Consequently  our  history  is  limited  to  a  small 
space  of  time,  which  it  is  now  too  late  ever  to  extend. 

Probably  no  horses  in  ancient  times  excelled  those  of  the  Egyptians. 
Their  beauty  and  strength  attracted  the  notice  of  other  nations. 
Solomon  compares  his  love  to  a  company  of  horses  in  Pharaoh's  char- 
iots.^ Adam  Clarke,  in  commentating  upon  the  passage,  translates  it 
more  literally:  "I  have  compared  the  Lesusathi  to  my  7nare  in  the 
chariots  or  courses  of  Pharaoh."^  This  commentator  tells  us  that 
Eastern  nations  preferred  mares  to  horses,  as  being  much  swifter, 
more  hardy,  and  able  to  go  longer  than  either  stallions  or  geldings. 
Nevertheless  it  is  noticeable  that  the  bass-reliefs  from  Egypt  mostly 
represent  horses  "  bound  to  the  chariots  "  sculptured  thereon. 

The  horse  has  been  praised  for  his  beauty  in  all  ages,  and  the  most 
beautiful  woman  of  antiquity  has  been  compared  to  a  horse  in  a  Thessa- 
lian  chariot,  by  Theocritus. ^  Among  the  ancients,  horses  were  kept 
almost  exclusively  for  war  purposes,  mules  and  asses  being  used  as 
beasts  of  burden  or  for  riding.  Every  reader  of  the  Bible  is  acquainted 
with  Job's  description  of  the  horse. ^  Homer  also  has  sung  his  praise,'' 
in  which  he  has  likewise  been  imitated  by  Virgil. ^ 

*  Canticles,  ch.  i,  v.  9. 

'^  "  Though  the  Egyptian  name  of  the  horse  was  shtJior,  the  mare  was  called,  as  in 
Hebrew,  sus  (pi.  susim),  which  argues  its  Semitic  origin,  faras,  the  mare,  being  still 
the  generic  name  of  the  Arabian  horse;  and  if  its  introduction  was  really  owing 
to  the  invasion  of  the  shepherds,  they  thereby  benefited  Egypt  as  much  as  by  causing 
the  union  of  the  whole  country  under  one  king."  —  Wilkinson's  Ancieiit  Egyptians, 
Vol.  I,  ch.  5. 

^  "The  golden  Helen,  tall  and  graceful,  appears  as  distinguished  among  us  as  the 
furrow  in  the  field,  the  cypress  in  the  garden,  or  the  Thessalian  horse  in  the  chariot." 
—  Theocritus,  Idyl  XVIII,  v.  28. 

"•  Job,  ch.  xxxix,  V.  19-25. 

*  There  are  two  passages  in  Homer,  nearly  alike,  descriptive  of  the  horse,  the  one 
illustrating  the  character  of  Paris,  the  other  Hector,  —  Homer's  Iliad,  B.  VI,  v.  506 ; 
B.  XV,  V.  263. 

^  "Turn,  si  qua  sonum  procul  arma  dedere, 
Stare  loco  nescit;  micat  auribus,  et  tremit  artus, 
Collectumque  premens  volvit  sub  naribus  ignem. 
Densa  juba,  et  dextro  j  aetata  recumbit  in  armo ; 
At  duplex  agitur  per  lurabos  spina,  cavatque 
Tellurem,  et  solido  graviter  sonat  ungula  cornu." 

Virgil's  Georgics,  B.  Til,  v.  83. 
Thus  beautifully  rendered  by  Dryden :  — 


64  EGYPTIAN    WORLD    ON-   WHEELS. 

In  modern  times  we  find  some  who  contend  that  the  horse  was  only 
made  to  be  ridden  in  the  saddle,  and  that  his  devotion  to  other  pur- 
poses is  one  of  the  necessities,  perhaps,  but  also  one  of  the  abuses  of 
civilization ;  that  dragging  vehicles  from  the  shoulders  by  pulling  is 
an  occupation  only  fit  for  bullocks,  and  that  where  the  horse  is  held  in 
most  esteem  he  is  never  dishonored  by  such  employment. ^  This  idea 
can  only  find  indorsement  among  such  nations  as  have  no  carriages,  — 
a  nation  of  barbarians. 

We  cannot  well  dismiss  Egyptian  vehicular  art  without  presenting 
the  reader  with  some  general  observations  respecting  it.  And  first  we 
would  remark,  that  no  mechanical  profession  was  ever  looked  upon  as 
degrading  or  dishonorable  among  this  ancient  people.  Every  man  had 
some  profession  assigned  him  by  law,  the  son  being  obliged  to  follow 
the  calling  of  his  fiither.  No  change  from  the  father's  occupation  was 
permitted  to  the  son,  nor  could  the  same  individual  follow  two  trades 
at  the  same  time.  The  consequences  were  that  art  reached  a  high 
state  of  perfection,  each  subsequent  mechanic  adding  to  his  predeces- 
sor's excellence  some  ingenuity  of  his  own.  This  wholesome  institu- 
tion, says  a  popular  author,  "  taught  every  man  to  sit  down  contented 
with  his  condition,  without  aspiring  to  one  more  elevated  from  interest, 
vainglory,  or  levity." 

"  The  fiery  courser,  when  he  hears  from  far 
The  sprightly  trumpets  aucl  the  shouts  of  war, 
Pricks  up  his  ears,  and,  trembling  with  delight, 
Shifts  pace,  and  paws,  and  hopes  the  promised  fight. 
On  his  right  shoulder  his  thick  mane  reclined, 
Euffles  at  speed,  and  dances  in  the  wind. 
His  horny  hoofs  are  jetty  black  and  round ; 
His  chine  is  double ;  starting  with  a  bound 
He  turns  the  turf,  and  shakes  the  solid  ground. 
Fire  from  his  eyes,  clouds  from  his  nostrils  flow; 
He  bears  his  rider  headlong  on  the  foe." 
'  Apuleius,  who  wrote  in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century,  says  :  "Even  neces- 
sary haste  sometimes  admits  of  proper  delav.     .     .     .     Those  who  have  occasion  to 
travel  fast    .    .    .    would  rather  ride  on  horseback  than  sit  in  a  car,  on  account  of  the 
annoyance  of  baggage,  the  weight  of  vehicles,  the  clogging  of  the  wheels,  the  rough- 
ness of  the  track,  the  heaps  of  stones,  the  projecting  roots  of  trees,  the  streams  on  the 
plain,  and  the  declivities  of  hills.     Wishing,  then,  to  avoid  all  these  retardations,  they 
select  a  riding-horse  of  enduring  powers  and  lively  speed,  strong  to  bear  and  a  good 
goer,  'that  sweeps  at  equal  pace  o'er  hill  and  dale,'  as  Lucilius  says." ■—  Florida,  Sect. 
21,  Bohn's  Ed. 


CHARIOT-BUILDEBS  AT  WOBK. 


65 


That  art  was  progressive  with  the  Egyptian  chariot-loiiildcrs  may  l)o 
learned  from  a  comparison  of  the  earlier  and  later  illustrations  we 
have  given  in  this  chapter.  The  manner  in  which  the  workman  carried 
on  his  operations  has  fortunately  been  transmitted  to  us  in  the  bass- 
reliefs  on  the  walls  of  an  edifice  erected  by  Thothmes  III  at  Thebes. 


Rimming   a   Wheel. 


The  fact  that  such  a  subject  was  considered  worthy  of  record  is  quite 
sufficient  to  brand  it  as  honorable,  as  well  as  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance. With  the  skillful  builder  of  chariots  rested  the  very  life  of  the 
nation,  as  in  chariots  and  horsemen  the  Egyptians  put  their  trust  in 
battle. 

In  the  copy,  although  it  is  much  defaced  by  time,  we  have  the 
representation  of  two  ancient  wheelwrights  at  work,  seemingly  in  the 
act  of  rimming  a  wheel.  This,  as  may  be  observed,  was  put  on  in 
bended  sections  overlapping  each  other  at  the  ends  of  the  spokes. 
The  original  drawing,  in  a  perfect  state,  represented  an  eight-spoked 
wheel,  such  as  has  already  been  seen  in  this  chapter.  The  forked 
articles  hanging  upon  the  walls  represent  the  ends  of  the  shafts,  such 
as  have  already  been  described  on  page  60,  in  connection  with  other 
fragments  of  a  chariot.  The  other  article  represents  an  axle-tree  and 
the  bottom  frame-work  of  a  chariot-body.  It  is  true,  the  journals  of 
this  axle-tree  are  not,  in  a  mechanical  sense,  very  perfect,  but  this 
probably  is  owing  to  the  carelessness  of  the  artist  or  his  ignorance  of 
architecture.  For  special  reasons,  as  before  observed,  the  axle-trees 
of  war-chariots  in  ancient  times  were  placed  near  the  hind  end  of  the 
body,  under  the  impression  that  the  chariot  was  less  lial:)lo  to  be  upset 


In  the  next  engraving  we  find  the  process  of  bending  timber  plainly 
5 


66 


EGYPTIAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


indicated  by  the  manner  in  which  the  straight  slips  of  wood  are 
inserted  between  the  two  upright  posts  for  shaping  into  rims.  The 
effect  of  steam  in  rendermg  timber  pliable  was  evidently  early  discov- 
ered by  the  ancients. 


That  these  worlanen 
are  constructing 
wheels  for  war-char- 
iots is  shown  by  the 
six-spoked  wheels 
represented  as  hang- 
ing on  the  walls  of 
the  factory.  A  sit- 
ting posture  when  in 
the  j)erformance  of 
work  was  not  among 
the  ancients  looked  upon  as  disgraceful,  it  being  universally  practiced 
when  practicable.  This,  too,  like  the  previous  figure,  has  seen  the 
effects  of  age. 

The  third  engraving  is  still  further  illustrative  of  the  art  as  carried 
on  in  Egypt.  Here  we  see  one  man  engaged  in  rending  a  stick  of 
timber  by  sawing,  —  a  proof  that  the  saw  is  a  very  old  invention,  — 
and  another  in  carrying  some  bent  portion  of  the  chariot,  perhaps  the 
front  rave  of  the  body,  three  other  like  portions  hanging  on  the  wall. 


Bending  the   Timbe 


■'■^m 


Making  the   Pole   and  other  Parts   of  the   Chariot. 

The  other  two  men  are  engaged  in  finishing  a  pole  of  a  crooked  shape, 
the  advantages  of  which  for  a  low-wheeled  vehicle  have  been  known 
from  remote  ages.  A  yoke  hangs  over  the  head  of  the  workman  with 
the  adze  at  labor  on  the  pole.     The  two  four-spoked  wheels  would 


DEFECTS  IN  ANCIENT   WHEELS.  67 

seem  to  indicate  that  in  this  shop  they  are  making  pleasure-chariots. 
Just  here  we  may  be  permitted  to  offer  some  general  reflections 
regarding  Egyptian  wheels. 

Upon  the  whole  it  must  be  conceded  that,  when  compared  with 
wheels  of  modern  manufacture,  those  of  ancient  times  were  decidedly, 
frail  and  weak.  An  example  of  their  inefficiency  has  already  been 
shown.  The  war-chariots  of  Egypt,  according  to  the  records  on  the 
monuments,  had  six  spokes  in  each  wheel,  the  business  and  pleasure 
carriages  being  represented  with  only  four.  We  account  for  this  dif- 
ference by  supposing  that  in  battle,  where  success  depended  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  stability  of  the  chariot,  special  care  was  taken  to 
provide  a  strong  wheel,  while  a  weaker  one  was  considered  good 
enough  for  more  peaceful  employment,  a  four-spoked  wheel  in  those 
days  being  much  cheaper  and  lighter.  It  is  evident  that  the  ancient 
workmen  made  the  "  tangs  "  of  the  spokes  very  light,  that  they  might 
not  unnecessarily  weaken  the  rim  at  the  point  of  insertion,  conse- 
quently the  ends  of  the  spokes  were  soon  broken  ofi".  To  provide 
against  this  or  any  other  mishap  in  conflict,  provision  was  made  for 
the  safety  of  the  king  as  well  as  his  generals,  by  having  an  attendant 
at  hand  with  an  extra  chariot,  into  which  he  could  spring  and  renew 
the  contest  if  judged  advisable,  or  secure  his  safety  by  flight  if  neces- 
sary. 

There  is  one  very  singular  feature  about  the  wheel  previously  men- 
tioned, which  is,  that  while  the  I'im  proper  appears  to  have  been  bent 
into  shape,  the  wooden  tire  was  cut  out  from  the  solid  timber.  Now, 
wood  was  an  excessively  costly  article  in  Egypt  because  of  the  scarcity, 
very  little  being  grown  there ;  consequently,  unless  for  some  special 
reason,  an  ancient  chariot-maker  would  never  have  wasted  his  stock  in 
"working  out"  his  tire,  when  he  could  have  obtained  it  by  bending. 
Such  material  had  to  be  imported  from  abroad,  great  quantities  of  it 
from  Syria,  rare  woods  constituting  a  portion  of  the  tribute  exacted 
from  the  conquered  nations.  Indeed,  so  highly  were  some  kinds  of 
wood  esteemed  for  ornamental  purposes,  that  painted  imitations  were 
often  substituted  for  the  poorer  classes  who  could  not  afi'ord  to  pay 
for  the  real  article  ;  and  the  doors,  windows,  and  panels  of  houses, 
boxes,  and  various  kinds  of  wood- work  were  frequently  made  of  cheap 
deal  or  sycamore  stained  to  resemble  some  of  the  rarest  foreign  woods. 
In  view  of  these  facts,  although  it  may  appear  strange  to  some  persons, 


68 


EGYPTIAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


we  infer  that  the  Egyptians  had  found  from  experiment  that  a  bent  tire 
of  wood  was  not  as  durable  as  one  worked  out,  and  that  the  waste  of 
timber  was  more  than  compensated  for  in  the  advantages  gained  for 
the  wheels. 

We  next  come  to  the  trimming  and  harness-making  department  of 
the  business.  This,  too,  we  are  able  to  illustrate  from  original  sources, 
the  bass-reliefs  from  the  tombs.  In  this  figure  the  left-hand  mechanic 
is  represented  as  engaged  in  trimming  a  chariot  of  about  the  time  of 
King  Menepthah  I   (circa  B.  C.   1600),   which  is  indicated  by  the 

rounded  corner 
at  the  rear  of 
the  body.  An- 
other workman, 
whose  head  time 
or  some  more 
destructive  van- 
dal has  taken 
off,  is  seen  cut- 
ting out  some 
portions  of  the 

material  required  in  trimming  his  job.  On  the  walls  hang  various 
articles  necessarily  used  in  completing  the  inside  linings  of  a  chariot, 
as  well  as  a  case  for  the  bow  and  another  for  the  quiver.  The  third 
man  is  probably  employed  in  dressing  the  hide  for  harness-making  and 
trhnming,  such  being  required  in  both  occupations.  This  leather  was 
afterwards  dyed  of  various  colors,  and  adorned  with  metal  edges  and 
studs.  Lest  it  should  be  misunderstood,  the  Egyptians  themselves 
have  not  neglected  to  point  out  to  us  Avhat  parts  or  divisions  of  the 
labor  devolved  upon  both  wood-workman  and  trimmer  respectively. 
Here,  while  the  chief  workman  displays  his  skill  in  putting  in  the 
lining,  his  assistant  is  employed  in  cutting  and  preparing  the  trim- 
mings from  leather,  of  which  material  chiefly  the  inside  linings  were 
composed.  The  ancient  artist  in  bass-relief  has  distinctly  given  us  to 
understand  the  iiature  of  the  material  employed,  by  representing  the 
skin  of  an  animal,  the  soles  of  a  pair  of  sandals,  and  other  articles  of 
leather  as  suspended  on  the  walls  of  the  workshop.  In  the  hands  of 
one  we  discover  the  identical  half-circular  knife,  still  in  use  by  the 
modern  mechanic,  invented  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago. 


Binding    or   tkimsiing    a    CiiAnio' 


BASS-BELIEFS  FBOM  THE  BUINS   OF  NINEVEH. 


G9 


GU 


:?r>3 


CHAPTER    II, 


ASSYRIAN  CHARIOTS  AND  OTHER  VEHICLES  FROM  THE  RUINS  OF  NINEVEH. 


The  Assyrian  came  down  like  the  wolf  on  the  fold, 
And  his  cohorts  were  gleaming  in  purple  and  gold  ; 
And  the  sheen  of  their  spears  was  like  stars  on  the  sea 
When  the  blue  waves  roll  nightly  on  deep  Galilee. 

And  there  lay  the  steed  with  his  nostrils  all  wide, 
But  through  it  there  rolled  not  the  breath  of  his  pride  ; 

And  there  lay  the  rider  distorted  and  pale, 

"With  the  dew  on  his  bosom  and  the  rust  on  his  mail." 

Bykon's  Destruction  of  Sennacherib. 


OR  centuries  the  originals  from  which 
our  illustrations  are  copied  were  buried 
deep  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh.  ^  To  the 
recent  labors  of  Botta  and  Layard  the 
world  is  indebted  for  those  early  treas- 
ures of  Assyrian  art  that  now  enrich 
the  Louvre  and  the  British  Museum 


*^  in  a  state  nearly  as  perfect  as  when 
they  came  from  the  sculptor's  hand.  These  bass- 
reliefs  once  served  as  ornaments  to  the  temples  and 
palaces  of  Nineveh,  having  been  preserved  some 
twenty-five  centuries,  beneath  vast  accumulations  of 
rubbish,  unknown  to  generations.  The  mounds  from 
which  they  were  taken  stand  on  the  eastern  bank  of 
the  Tigris,  a  few  miles  southward  of  the  modern  town 
of  Mosul.     The  bass-reliefs  are  evidently  not  all  of 


1  We  read  in  the  sacred  pages  that  Nimrod  was  "  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord. 
And  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom  was  Babel  and  Erech,  and  Arcad  and  Calnch,  in  the 
land  of  Shinar.  Out  of  that  land  went  forth  Asshur  [one  of  the  sons  of  Noah]  and 
builded  Nineveh."  The  same  authority  calls  Assyria  the  land  of  Nimrod.  Usher  teUs 
us  that  Assyria  was  founded  fifteen  hundred  years  earlier  than  the  Egyptian  kingdom, 


70  ASSYEIAN    WORLD   OK  WHEELS. 

the  same  date  and  workmanship,  nor  from  the  same  edifice,  but  likely 
the  productions  of  various  periods  of  Assyrian  art. 

There  is  no  definite  data  from  which  to  fix  the  time  when  chariots 
were  first  introduced  into  Assyria.  There  is,  however,  little  doubt  of 
its  having  been  done  at  a  very  early  period  in  its  history,  possibly  by 
the  army  of  Sesostris,^  who,  we  are  told  in  the  fragmentary  history  by 
Manetho,  after  having  appointed  his  brother  Armais  viceroy  over  his 
kincdom,  "went  on  an  expedition  against  Cyprus  and  Phoenicia,  and 
waged  war  with  the  Assyrians  and  Medes,  all  of  whom  he  subdued,  either 
by  force,  or  voluntary  submission  by  the  mere  terror  of  his  power."  2 
At  that  time  the  Assyrian  empire  had  been  founded  a  little  more  than 
three  hundred  years,  and  although  the  people  were  in  most  occupa- 
tions behind  the  Egyptians,  still,  during  the  succeeding  fifteen  hundred 
years,  greater  progress  was  made  in  the  art  of  chariot-building  in 
Assyria  than  in  Egypt,  judging  from  the  figures  on  the  bass-reliefs. 
The  Assyrian  chariots  exhibit  a  solidity  which  must  have  admirably 
fitted  them  for  warlike  purposes. 

The  following  engraving  represents  the  king  of  Assyria  as  in  the  act 
of  crossing  a  stream  while  standing  in  a  chariot,  mounted  on  a  boat, 
attended  by  a  body-guard  of  eunuchs,  one  of  whom  is  directing  the 
king's  attention  to  an  enemy  in  the  distance.  The  king,  by  holding 
two  arrows  in  his  hand,  confesses  that  he  is  ready  for  action. 

•which  Uist  it  is  admitted^  was  the  first  over  organized.  Ctesiiis  (quoted  by  Diodorus 
Siculus)  says  Niueveh  was  founded  by  Ninus  B.  C.  2183.  Africauus  (quoted  by  Syu- 
cellus)  says  tlie  Assyrian  monarchy  was  established  B.  C.  2204;  Eusebius,  B.  C.  2116; 
Emelius  Susa  (quoted  by  Velleius  Paterculus),  B.  C.  2145;  Polyhistor  (in  an  extract 
from  Berosus),  B.  C.  2317.  It  is  agreed  by  nearly  all  historians  that  the  empire  did 
not  continue  longer  than  thirteen  hundred  years,  ending  with  the  overthrow  of  Sarda- 
napalus,  who  died  about  743  B.  C.  Going  back  thirteen  hundred  years,  we  And  that 
Ninus  reigned  two  hundred  years  after  Nimrod,  in  exact  conformity  with  the  chronol- 
ogy of  Berosus.  Some  writers  think  that  Babylonia  and  Assyria  were  originally  two 
distinct  kingdoms,  and  that  Ninus  founded  that  of  Assyria,  making  Asshur  the  founder 
of  the  monarchy,  and  Ninus  the  founder  of  the  empire.  As  we  have  seen,  the  monarchy 
ended  with  the  death  of  Sardanapalus ;  but  during  his  reign,  Arbaces,  king  of  Media, 
having  led  his  army  across  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan,  after  conquering  the  people, 
made  himself  king  of  Assyria  circa  804  B.  C.  After  the  death  of  Arbaces,  the  Assyrians 
shook  off  this  foreign  yoke,  and  set  Pul,  the  first  of  a  new  line  of  kings,  on  the  throne, 
he  reigning  twenty-one  years.  Tiglath  Pileser  succeeded  him,  B.  C.  753 ;  after  him 
came  Shalmanaser,  B.  C.  734,  followed  by  Sennacherib,  some  events  of  Avhose  history 
will  be  noticed  in  connection  with  the  illustrations  of  his  cliariot  found  in  this  chapter. 

'  Some  incidents  in  the  life  of  this  monarch  are  given  on  page  39  et  seq. 

^  Josephus,  Contra  Appian,  B.  I,  ch.  14,  15. 


BIVER   TRAN8F0RTATI0N  OF  AN  ARMY. 


71 


The    chariot   here   represented  exhil)its  the   manner   in    which   the 
Assyrians  attached  the  pole  to  the  body,  as  well  as  the  shape  of  the 


same.  The  boat  itself,  propelled  by  several  oarsmen,  is  further  aided 
by  two  stalwart  soldiers  pulling  at  a  rope,  while  under  the  jjilotage 
of  a  helmsman,  who  for  a  rudder  uses  a  long  paddle.     At  the  left,  on 


72  ASSYRIAN   WOELD    ON   WHEELS. 

the  slab  from  which  our  design  is  copied,  four  horses  are  represented 
as  swimming,  led  by  a  rope  in  the  hands  of  the  man  standing  up  in  the 
stern,  while  above  a  man  is  seen  in  the  water  buoyed  up  by  some  kind 
of  an  inflated  life-preserver,  made  from  what  appears  to  have  been 
raw  hide.  Following  these,  in  a  nude  condition,  are  several  soldiers, 
all  mixed  up  with  boats,  horses,  etc.,  intended  to  represent  an 
immense  army  fording  the  river  against  the  king's  enemy.  The  body 
of  this  chariot  differs  but  little  from  other  examples  found  in  the  Nim- 
roud  bass-reliefs  from  Nineveh,^  as  will  presently  be  shown,  the  object 
in  this  instance  being  to  fairly  represent  the  manner  of  constructing 
the  pole  and  the  arrangement  of  the  furniture,  which  in  most  cases 
hereafter  will  be  hidden  by  the  horses.  The  pole,  bound  near  the 
base  with  three  rings,  is  very  graceful  in  form,  and  made  quite  orna- 
mental by  the  addition  of  a  carved  horse-head  finish  at  the  extreme 
end,  at  which  dangles  a  yoke.  The  king,  besides  having  his  two 
quivers  well  supplied  with  arrows,  has  resolution  depicted  in  his  coun- 
tenance, indicative  of  a  preparation  for  any  attack  the  enemy  may 
choose  to  offer.  It  is  a  noticeable  feature  in  this  picture  that  all 
except  "His  Majesty,"  out  of  respect  to  royalty,  have  their  heads 
uncovered. 

In  trying  to  fix  the  chronology  of  Assyrian  art  as  shown  in  these 
pages  Ave  have  expended  much  labor  with  an  unsatisfactory  result. 
Our  judgment,  however,  differs  in  many  particulars  from  that  of  other 
historians  whose  opinions  are  entitled  to  respect.  For  instance,  Lay- 
ard  claims  that  the  bass-reliefs  from  Khorsabad  are  much  older  than 
those  from  Nimroud.  We  think  otherwise,  and  arrange  them  as  fol- 
lows:  Nimroud,  Khorsabad,  and  Kouyunjik.  This  order  seems  to  be 
justified  by  the  fact  that  in  all,  or  n.early  all,  the  Nimroud  wheels 
there  are  but  six  spokes,  the  same  as  we  have  observed  in  the  Egyp- 
tian, while  in  those  from  Khorsabad  there  are  eight,  and  in  some  of 
those  from  Kouyunjik  there  are  even  more.  Again,  in  the  Nimroud 
sculptures,    of  which   we   give   a   specimen,  there   is  an   appendage 

'  Nineveh  must  have  been  crowded  with  chariots,  as  "  the  noise  of  a  whip,  and  the 
noise  of  the  rattling  of  the  wheels,  and  of  the  prancing  horses,  and  of  the  jumping 
chariots,"  are  noticed  in  the  Bible  (Nahum,  ch.  iii,  v.  2).  The  city  itself  was  four- 
teen miles  in  length,  eight  in  width,  and  forty  in  circumference,  surrounded  by  a 
wall  one  hundred  feet  high,  and  thick  enough  for  three  chariots  to  stand  abreast  on  the 
summit. 


SPOKES  AS  DATA    FOB   CHRONOLOGY. 


73 


extending  from  the 
front  of  the  body  to 
the  front  of  the  pole 
between  the  horses, 
the  use  of  which  it 
is  difficult  to  decide, 
while  in  those  from 
Khorsabad  and  Kon- 
yunjik  it  is  entirely 
omitted.  This  we 
suppose  in  time  was 
considered  too  cum- 
bersome for  practical 
use,  and  was  there- 
fore abolished.  There 

are  other  reasons  we  Assyrian   War-chariot. 

could  mention  did  we  deem  it  necessary.! 

Before  going  farther,  we  would  remark  that  the  general  design  and 
execution  of  the  original  bass-reliefs,  from  which  nearly  all  our  exam- 
ples are  copied,  evince  an  advanced  degree  of  refinement  that  chal- 
lenges our  admiration.  The  chief  object  for  which  they  were  executed 
doubtless  was  to  record  the  more  remarkable  events  in  the  history  of 
the  nation  when  book-making  was  less  often  resorted  to  than  now ; 
and  in  order  to  make  the  picture-record  strike  the  mind  of  the 
beholder  with  more  force  through  the  eye,  a  conventional  mode  of 
representation  was  adopted,  never  afterwards  wholly  abandoned. 

A  very  popular  author,  in  comparing  Assyrian  with  Egyptian  art, 
tells  us  that  "the  Egyptians,  like  all  other  people  in  their  infancy. 


*  We  are  aware  that  Bouomi,  Avitli  considerable  ingenuity,  endeavors  to  prove  tliat 
which  we  are  inclined  to  dispute,  by  telling  us  that  "another  innovation  apparent  at 
Nimroud  is  the  alteration  of  the  chariot,  probably  copied  from  some  other  country. 
We  learn  from  Xenophou  {Ctjropoedia,  B.  VI)  that  Cyrus  built  chariots  of  a  new  form, 
having  found  great  Inconvenience  in  the  old  ones,  the  fashion  of  which  came  from 
Troy,  and  had  continued  in  use  until  that  time  tliroughout  all  Asia ;  and  we  may  very 
easily  surmise  that  the  walls  at  Nimroud  supply  examples  of  the  Trojan,  the  interme- 
diate stage  between  those  portrayed  at  Khorsabad  and  those  introduced  by  Cyrus."  — 
BoNOMi's  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces,  page  305.  The  chariots  of  the  Assyrian  kings  cor- 
respond with  those  of  Cyrus,  as  mentioned  by  Xenophon  and  described  by  Quintus 
Curtius,  B.  Ill,  ch.  3.     See  Layard's  Nineveh  and  its  Bemains,  Vol.  II,  p.  280. 


74  ASSY  EI  AN   WORLD    ON^  WHEELS. 

attached  importance  to  the  exterior  line  only.  In  their  paintings  and 
sculptures  they  made  strokes  of  astonishing  boldness  and  character,  by 
which  both  proportion  and  action  were  rendered  with  great  perfection. 
But  here  their  science  stopped ;  and  in  later  times,  as  in  the  most 
remote,  they  never  thought  of  completing  these  outlines  by  an  exact 
representation  of  the  anatomical  details  contained  within  them.  Their 
finest  statues  are  in  this  respect  as  defective  as  their  bass-reliefs  and 
paintings.  Seizing  on  the  characteristic  forms  of  their  objects,  they 
never  varied  them  under  whatever  aspect ;  thus  the  front  view  of  the 
eye  was  always  introduced  in  the  profile  face,  the  profile  foot  in  the 
front  view  of  the  figure,  and  but  extremely  rarely  does  the  front  face 
occur,  although  the  body  may  be  facing,  —  a  law  which  seems  to  have 
considerably  influenced  the  Greek  sculptors  in  their  compositions  for 
basso-relievo,  and,  as  it  appears  to  us,  one  imposed  by  the  art  itself. 
All  the  necessary  details,  however,  for  characterizing  the  objects  in 
Egyptian  and  Assyrian  relievi  are  always  made  visible,  whether  they 
could  in  this  particular  view  be  seen  or  not.  Lastly,  always  sacrificing 
truth  to  the  desire  of  hiding  nothing  which  in  their  eyes  appeared  the 
more  important,  the  Egyptian  painters  and  sculptors  have  carefully 
avoided  crossing  the  figures  by  accessory  ohjects  which  would  have 
hidden  any  part  of  them, — a  law  which  the  Greeks  also  observed  ;  and 
possibly  to  the  same  law  may  be  attributed,  in  these  and  the  Egyptian 
representations  of  battles,  the  larger  dimensions  they  have  given  to 
the  conquerors  than  the  conquered. 

"Most  of  these  characteristics  are  found  in  Assyrian  as  well  as 
Egytitian  art,  but  they  are  less  strongly  marked,  and  the  careful 
observer  can  perceive  that  the  art  is  emsrging  from  its  state  of  infancy. 
The  bodies  are  no  longer  all  full-face,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  and 
have  less  conventional  stifi'ness.  The  figures  consist  no  more  of  mere 
outlines,  the  heads  are  well  modeled,  and  the  anatomical  details  of  the 
limbs,  the  bones,  and  the  muscles  are  always  represented,  though 
coarsely  and  ignorantly  expressed,  and  with  a  conventional  exaggera- 
tion indicating  a  greater  knowledge  of  anatomy,  but  a  less  artistic 
mode  of  conveying  their  knowledge  than  is  found  in  Egyptian  figures 
of  the  same  age.  The  reader  need  only  compare  some  Egyptian 
figures  in  the  British  Museum  with  some  of  the  Assyrian  bass-reliefs 
in  the  same  establishment  to  convince  himself  how  superior  the  latter 
are  as  representations  of  real  life ;    but  on  the  other  hand,  they  are 


ASSYEIAN  NEGOTIATIONS  FOE  PEACE.  75 

decidedly  inferior  in  justness  of  proportion  and  purity  of  drawing. 
In  tliG  Assyrian  bass-reliefs  the  figures  are  generally  too  short,  and  the 
artist  has  not  always  succeeded  in  endowing  them  distinctly  enough 
with  animation."  ^  Thus  much  we  have  given  to  prepare  the  reader 
fjr  studying  the  objects  which  follow,  reserving  our  own  observations 
until  we  have  subjects  before  us  for  practical  examination. 

The  full-page  illustration  which  follows  would  appear  to  be  the 
representation  of  a  treaty  of  peace  between  one  of  the  kings  of  Assyria^ 
and  an  enemy.  The  king,  having  routed  and  put  to  flight  his  enemies, 
as  indicated  by  the  fillet  attached  to  a  spear  at  the  rear  of  his  chariot, 
has  alighted  to  receive  the  submission  of  the  melek,  or  representative 
of  the  enemy,  who  probably  is  likewise  himself  a  king,  as,  like  the 
conqueror,  he  is  attired  in  an  embroidered  tunic,  while  prostrate  at  his 
feet  lies  a  soldier  from  the  conquered  army,  divested  of  his  armor  in 
token  of  humility.  From  the  shape  of  his  helmet  it  is  conjectured 
that  this  fallen  soldier  is  a  rebel  Assyrian  from  a  revolted  province. 
Both  negotiators  are  on  foot,  but  the  conqueror,  attended  by  two 
armed  eunuchs,  one  holding  an  umbrella  over  his  head,  holds  in  one 
hand  a  bow  ready  strung  for  use,  and  in  the  other,  upraised,  two 
arrows,  showing  that,  although  peacefully  inclined,  he  is  prepared  for 
war,  if  forced  to  such  an  alternative.  The  posture  and  countenance 
of  the  petitioner  clearly  indicate  that  he  is  earnest  in  his  pleadings  for 
mercy.  The  right  hand,  unnaturally  large  in  proportion  with  the 
other  limbs,  may  signify  that  his  transgressions  have  been  great,  and 
that  consequently  he  craves  a  large  forgiveness.  The  victorious  mon- 
arch is  followed  by  his  chariot  and  attendants  in  Oriental  style,  the 
charioteer  holding  the  reins,  guarded  by  a  soldier,  the  horses  being 
held  by  a  groom.  Proceeding  from  the  front  of  this  chariot  is  the 
very  richly  embroidered  appendage  previously  referred  to  on  page  73, 
probably  intended  for  two  purposes,  the  one  ornamental,  and  the 
other  as  a  preventative  against  the  coming  together  of  the  horses. 
The  shape  of  this  chariot  is  similar  to  that  on  page  71.  The  spear, 
stuck  in  its  appointed  place,  in  a  socket  behind,  is  ornamented  with  a 
carving  representing  a  human  head.  At  the  rear  of  the  chariot  hangs 
the  embossed  shield  of  a  warrior,  its  accustomed  place  when  not  in 


Bonomi's  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces,  pp.  313,  314. 
Probably  Asshur-izir-pal. 


76 


ASSYBIAN  WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 


HUNTING  LIONS  IN  ETHIOPIA.  77 

use,  while  beneath  the  axle-tree  depend  two  heavy  tassels,  serving  as 
ornaments,  matching  those  in  the  harness.  An  ample  supply  of 
arrows  projecting  above  the  quivers,  accompanied  by  a  battle-ax, 
indicates  the  undiminished  powers  of  the  victorious  chief  on  this 
occasion. 

A  bass-relief  representing  an  Assyrian  lion-hunt  in  the  wilds  of 
Ethiopia  was  discovered  by  Layard  in  1866,  among  the  ruins  of  a 
temple  at  Nineveh.  In  the  chariot  represented  on  the  slab  stands  the 
king  with  his  charioteer,  the  monarch  in  the  act  of  discharging  an 
arrow,  drawn  by  three  horses,  as  that  number  of  heads  show,  their 
trappings  being  much  more  elaborate  than  the  Egyptian.  In  this  case 
we  find,  instead  of  plumes,  large  tassels  falling  on  the  foreheads  of  the 
horses  between  the  eyes,  probably  considered  more  appropriate  in 
hunting  wild  animals  than  the  business  of  warring  upon  mankind. 
The  bridle  usually  consisted  of  head-stall  and  strap,  in  three  divisions, 
connected  with  a  bit,  with  others  over  the  forehead,  under  the  cheeks, 
and  behind  the  ears,  and  a  very  large  rosette,  an  ornamental  append- 
age hanging  from  the  saddle  just  back  of  the  fore  shoulders  and  over 
them.  There  is  likewise  a  fanciful  compression  of  the  tails  of  the 
horses  in  the  center,  diflering  from  the  Egyptian.  The  chariot,  in  the 
example  alluded  to,  has  a  plain  panel  in  the  side  and  a  highly  orna- 
mented pole,  strengthened  in  the  crooked  portion  by  three  rings, 
supported  in  its  place  by  a  brace,  probably  iron,  depending  from  the 
upper  portion  of  the  body.  The  body  itself  is  much  lower  at  the  back 
end  than  it  is  in  front,  the  back  having  a  singular  fixture  attached,  the 
use  of  which  is  unknown. 

Hunting  the  king  of  beasts  was  anciently,  as  now,  evidently  consid- 
ered a  dangerous  business,  for  we  see  in  this  picture  that  the  huntsman 
has  crowded  his  quiver  full  of  arrows,  and  provided  himself  with  a 
sword,  two  daggers,  and  also  two  hatchets,  besides  filling  his  hands 
with  an  extra  supply  of  arrows  and  a  long  spear.  The  body  is  hung 
in  front  of  the  axle-tree,  which  is  additional  evidence  of  its  antiquity. 
A  lion  struggling  beneath  the  feet  of  the  horses,  pierced  by  the 
hunter's  arrow,  is  singularly  expressive,  in  the  countenance,  of  agony 
in  death. 

In  a  second  example,  furnished  by  Layard,  is  shown  another  lion- 
hunt,  where  the  hunter  is  attacked  from  the  rear  of  a  chariot  by 
the   infuriated   beast,    already   wounded,  and  the   charioteer  is  seen 


78 


ASSYBIAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


urofinsr  on  his  steeds  at  a 
furious  rate  in  order  to 
escape  threatened  danger, 
the  lion  having  planted  his 
fore-paws  upon  the  back 
end .  The  king  having  turned 
himself  about  at  this  critical 
moment,  discharges  an  ar- 
row at  the  head  of  the  mon- 
arch of  the  forest,  who,  by 
the  position  of  his  tail,  shows 
that  he  is  furious  with  rage. 
Just  behind  the  chariot 
stand  two  attendants  with 
shields  and  daggers,  ready 
to  lend  their  assistance  to 
the  sovereign,  or  to  defend 
themselves  should  occasion 
require.  Under  the  feet  of 
the  horses  lies  another  lion 
in  the  agonies  of  death. 

The  lion  attacking  the 
sportive  king  has  a  singular 
looking  "  fixture  "  in  the  end 
of  the  tail.  Bonomi  tells 
us  that  "  the  existence  of  a 
claw  in  the  tuft  at  the  end 
of  the  lion's  tail  was  disputed 
for  ages,"  but  here  in  these 
ancient  bass-reliefs  is  an 
exaggerated  representation 
of  it,  in  support  of  a  curious 
fact  in  natural  history.  This 
peculiarity  was  first  recorded 
by  Didymus  of  Alexandria, 
an  early  commentator  on  the  Iliad,  who  flourished  al)out  forty  years 
before  the  Christian  era.  Homer  and  other  poets  feign  that  the  lion 
lashes  his  sides,  and  Lucan  states  that  he  does  so  to  stimulate  himself 


CLAWS  IN  THE   TAILS   OF  LIONS.  79 

to  rage ;  but  not  one  of  these  writers  adverts  to  the  claw  in  the  tail, 
although  Didymus,  who  lived  one  hundred  years  before  the  last-named 
author,  discovered  it,  and  conjectured  that  its  purpose  was  to  effect 
more  readily  what  Lucan  ascribes  to  the  tail  alone.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  supposed  use  or  intention  of  this  claw,  its  existence  has 
been  placed  beyond  all  dispute  by  Mr.  Bennett,  who,  at  one  of  the 
meetings  of  the  Zoological  Society  of  London  in  1832,  showed  a  speci- 
men of  it,  which  was  taken  from  a  living  animal  in  the  Society's 
Menagerie.  1  It  is  no  small  gratification  to  be  able  now  to  quote,  in 
evidence  of  the  statement  of  Mr.  Bennett  and  his  predecessor,  Didymus 
of  Alexandria,  this  original  and  authentic  document,  on  the  authority 
of  the  veritable  descendants  of  the  renowned  hunter  himself, — a  docu- 
ment, too,  that  any  one  may  read  who  will  take  the  pains  to  examine 
the  slab  under  consideration. ^ 

The  next  illustration  is  copied  from  Botta's  great  work,  the  original 
of  which  was  discovered  by  him  among  the  ruins  of  Khorsabad.  Al- 
though somewhat  defaced  by  the  action  of  time,  yet  as  representing  a 
chariot  it  is  the  most  perfect  in  his  collection.  This  is  very  evidently 
a  war-chariot,  drawn  by  three  horses,  as  the  head-plumes  indicate, 
although,  as  usual  in  Assyrian  drawings,  they  are  deficient  in  the 
requisite  number  of  heads  and  legs,  in  which  stand  three  warriors,  the 
king  with  his  bow  strung,  the  charioteer,  and  the  guard  holding  the 
shield  in  his  hand  as  a  defense.  In  front  of  the  horses  falls  a  soldier 
from  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  who,  being  wounded,  drops  his  spear; 
while  behind  the  chariot  march  two  others,  from  the  looks  of  their 
sheepskin  dress  apparently  his  comrades  in  misfortune,  one  of  whom 
holds  in  one  hand  a  spear,  and  in  the  other  a  shield.  The  original 
slab  (Botta,  No.  65)  forms  a  portion  of  the  picture  taken  from  the 
private  council-chamber  in  the  palace  of  Khorsabad,  probably  intended 
to  perpetuate  the  more  important  events  in  the  history  of  some  king. 
The  chariot  is  square,  the  ornamental  adornings  being  more  elaborate 
than  in  any  example  heretofore  given.  In  front  of  the  chariot  there  is 
only  a  single  brace  extending  to  the  end  of  the  pole,  instead  of  the 
cumbersome  fixtures  in  other  examples  from  Nimroud.     It  is  note- 

'  See  the  ProcrefJings  of  the  Council  of  the  Zoological  Society  of  London,  1832,  p.  14G. 
Tills  .singular  instrumeut  in  the  tail  of  the  lion,  we  suspect,  is  a  rarity,  as  such  have 
not  been  discovered  in  the  lions  brought  to  this  country,  that  we  have  ever  heard  of. 

*  Bonorai's  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces,  p.  24G. 


80 


ASS  TBI  AN   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


CHARIOT  DBIVEN  BY  A  EUNUCH. 


81 


worthy  th:it  in  Assyrian  wtir-chariots  the  quiver  is  phiced  in  an  upright 
position  at  the  front  end,  instead  of  the  slanting  one  we  have  seen  them 
occupy  in  the  Egyptian  examples.^ 

The  trappings  and  harness  of  the  horses  at  this  period  differ  in  many 
respects  from  those  we  have  previously  given  from  Nimroud.  Three 
elegant  plumes  wjive  over  the  heads  of  the  horses,  arched  crests  and 
tassels  spreading  across  the  forehead  and  falling  nearly  to  the  eyes, 
and  the  harness  attached  to  the  yoke  is  more  profusely  ornamented 
with  rosettes  and  fringes  in  a  much  more  plain  and  simple  manner. 
In  the  earlier  figures  the  tails  of  the  horses  are  simply  bound  in  the 
center  with  ribbons,  but  as  we  proceed  we  find  that  those  represented 
on  the  bass-reliefs  at  Kouyunjik  are  sometimes  plaited,  as  in  the  Per- 
sian sculptures  and  on  the  earlier  tombs  of  Xanthus. 

Another  chariot  of  about  the  time  we  write  is  elegant  in  proportions 
and  elaborately  painted.     The  harness  is  much  like  the  pattern  given 


JNUCH  ViTH   Horses. 

in  our  last  figure,  but  better  displayed  in  the  drawing.  The  bodies 
of  these  last  show  a  marked  progress  in  art,  being  much  more  graceful 
in  design,  although  little  progress  appears  in  the  hanging-off.     The 

1  See  "Monument  de  Ninive  Decouvert  et  Degrit,  par  M.  P.  E.  Botta,  mesure  et 
dessine  par  M.  E.  Elandrin,  ouvrage  publie  par  ordre  du  gouvernement  sous  les  auspices 
de  M.  le  Ministre  de  I'lnterieur  et  sous  la  direction  d'une  commission  de  I'Institut. 
Paris  :  Imprimerie  Nationale.     1850." 


82  ASSYBIAN  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

pole,  as  before  remarked,  no  longer  terminates  in  a  fanciful  head  of 
some  animal,  if  we  may  form  an  opinion  from  inspecting  the  bass- 
reliefs,  but  instead  is  more  highly  ornamented  at  the  base.  The 
wheels,  too,  were  much  higher,  being  some  five  feet.  The  upper  por- 
tion of  the  body,  instead  of  being  rounded,  was  nearly  square.  It  is 
probable  that  many  of  these  chariots  were  inlaid  with  gold,  silver,  and 
costly  woods,  and  also  painted  like  some  of  the  examples  taken  by  the 
Egyptians  in  Mesopotamia  fifteen  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Christ, 
as  recorded  on  a  statistical  tablet  at  Karnak,  which  mentions  "  thirty 
chariots  worked  in  gold  and  silver  and  painted  poles,"  brought  as 
trophies  from  that  country.^  From  a  passage  in  Zechariah  it  would 
seem  that  among  the  ancients  it  was  usual  to  pair  horses  according  to 
their  color,  —  a  practice  followed  by  us  in  our  times.^ 

There  is  one  very  remarkable  feature  in  some  of  the  wheels  of  these 
Assyrian  chariots  that  distinguishes  them  from  the  Egyptian.  If  we 
examine  the  bass-reliefs  we  find  that  the  spokes  especially  are  very 
light  in  comparison  with  other  portions  of  the  wheel,  —  a  circumstance 
favoring  the  probability  that  they  were  made  of  iron.  This  surmise  is 
somewhat  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  fragment  of  a  small  circle, 
undoubtedly  forming  a  portion  of  a  car-wheel,  has  been  found  in  the 
ruins  of  Nineveh,  on  the  concave  side  of  which  still  remain  the  iron 
roots  of  the  spokes.  The  rims  of  these  wheels  appear  to  be  composed 
of  two  concentric  circles,  the  external  one  being  united  to  the  other 
by  broad  flaps  or  plates  in  most  examples,  although  not  shown 
in  all. 


'  The  chariots  aud  horses  of  Naharaina  (Mesopotamia)  are  mentioned  on  an  Egj^p- 
tian  monument  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  "An  officer  of  Thothmes  I  captured  for 
him,  in  the  land  of  Naharaina,  twenty-one  hands  [eleven  men],  a  horse  and  chariot." — 
Birch's  Memoir  on  the  Statistical  Tablet  of  Karnak,  p.  8.  Chariot  cities,  or  cities  for 
the  support  of  warriors  fighting  in  chariots,  are  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  as 
in  2  Chron.,  ch.  i,  v.  14,  and  ch.  viii,  v.  6.  According  to  the  Mosaic  law,  David  could 
not  possess  chariots  nor  put  his  trust  in  them ;  yet  when  the  Ammonites  and  Syrians, 
after  their  disgraceful  conduct  towards  his  pacific  messengers,  had  come  out  in  battle 
against  him  with  thirty-two  thousand  chariots  hired  out  of  Mesopotamia,  he  slew, 
according  to  the  sacred  historian,  seven  thousand  men  "which  fought  in  chariots," 
showing  that  such  were  numerous  in  that  day. 

^"And,  behold,  there  came  four  chariots  out  from  between  two  mountains; 
and  the  mountains  were  mountains  of  brass.  In  the  first  chariot  were  red  horses,  and 
in  the  second  chariot  black  horses,  and  in  the  third  chariot  white  horses,  and  in  the 
fourth  chariot  grizzled  and  bay  horses."  —  Zech.,  ch.  vi,  v.  1-3. 


WHEELED   CHAIRS  FOE  ROYALTY. 


83 


Special  pains  for  the  accommodation  of  royalty  were  taken  amono-  the 
Assyrians.  On  one  bass-relief  we  observe  two  eunuchs  carrying  a  sort 
of  arm-chair  on  their  shoulders,  elegant  in  design,  supplied  with  wheels 
to  be  drawn  by  hand  should  the  king  have  occasion  to  visit  mountain- 
ous regions  inaccessible  for  chariots.  This  was  constructed  as  fol- 
lows :  the  seat,  after  the  chair  model,  was  straight  in  the  back,  having 
arms  or  resters  bent  after  a  peculiar  pattern  to  join  an  interior  square 
leg.  At  the  side  are  three  bearded  figures,  having  a  tiara  on  the  head 
of  each  ornamented  with  bull's  horns  doubled.  Between  the  seat  and 
a  sort  of  round,  connecting  the  front  and  back  legs,  is  an  elegant  minia- 
ture figure  of  a  horse  in  harness,  which  seems  to  push  forward  with  his 
chest  the  leg  before  him.  The  bar  supporting  this  equestrian  ornament 
is  studded  with  fleur-de-lis  placed  base  to  base,  thus  completing  the 


The   King's  Chair  borne  by  Eunuchs.  — Khorsab ad. 


connection,  the  legs  terminating  in  a  conical  mass  formed  of  rows  of 
scales,  like  those  of  a  fir-cone,  lessening  in  size  as  they  near  the  point. 
The  chair  is  placed  with  two  legs  on  the  axle-tree,  the  other  two  being 
inserted  in  the  shafts.  The  wheels,  heavy  in  the  felloes,  like  all 
Assyrian  chariots,  are  studded  with  eight  spokes.  The  shafts  are 
straight  at  the  base  and  curving  in  front,  terminating  in  a  carved 


84 


ASSYRIAN    WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


horse-head.     The  yoke  or  draw-bar  has  a  sheep's-head  finish  at  both 
ends.^ 

Another  party — two  soldiers  —  are  represented  (Botta,  PI.  XX)  as 
carrying  on  their  shoulders  the  chariot  represented  in  our  engraving. 
It  is  supposed  to  have  been  taken  from  some  contemporary  nation 
among  the  spoils  of  a  captured  city,  as  the  chariot  differs  altogether 
from  the  Assyrian.  The  wheels,  although  massive  in  the  felloes,  have 
only  four  spokes  in  each   hub.     The  body  and  pole  are  decidedly 


Chariot   captured   by   the   Assyrians. 


IIORSABAD. 


unique,  this  last  being  attached  to  the  body  in  the  most  unmechanical 
manner  possible.  Unless  well  plated  with  iron,  it  must  have  proved  a 
very  weak  affair.  The  yoke  is  likewise  very  curious,  the  whole  thing 
representing  a  very  inferior  work  of  art  when  compared  with  the 
chariots  of  Assyria. 

Kouyunjik  Tepe,  as  the  place  is  called  by  modern  Arabians,  lies 
northward  of  Ninionah,  and  consists  of  a  mound  probably  formed  out 
of  the  ruins  of  a  temple  or  palace  erected  by  some  Assyrian  monarch, 
possibly  by  Sennacherib,  since  the  bass-reliefs  exhumed  by  Layard 
chiefly  relate  to  some  events  in  his  remarkable  life.  This  palace  is 
much  more  modern  than  either  Nimroud  or  even  Khorsabad,  as  the 
relics  found  in  its  ruins  fully  demonstrate.  In  the  chariots,  both  in 
construction  and  design,  great  improvement  has  been  made,  as  will 
hereafter  appear. 


The  original  is  on  exhibition  in  tlie  Louvre,  numbered  25,  beautifully  executed. 


SENNACHERIB  BEFOBE  LAGHISH.  85 

Tlie  illustration  on  next  page  represents  the  chariot  of  Sennacherib, 
—  proved  such  by  the  cuneiform  inscription  which  accompanies  the 
original  slab,  —  the  great  king  of  Assyria,  who  "  came  up  against  the 
fenced  cities  of  Judah  and  took  them,"  during  the  reign  of  King  Heze- 
kiah.^  The  king,  having  left  his  chariot  in  the  charge  of  attendants,  is 
depicted  as  sitting  in  judgment  on  a  marble  throne  before  the  city  of 
Lachish,  an  officer  of  rank  standing  in  his  presence,  probably  Eabsha- 
keth  himself,  followed  by  a  detachment  of  soldiers.  A  little  way  off 
captive  Jews  are  seen.  Near  by,  the  king's  chariot,  shown  in  our 
engraving,  stands  ready  for  use  at  his  call.  The  charioteer,  as  well  as 
his  umbrella-bearer  and  hostlers,  are  at  their  posts,  making  the  safety 
of  the  chariot  and  horses  doubly  sure.  The  most  noticeable  feature  in 
the  construction  of  this  chariot  is  the  unusually  high  wheel  and  the 
exquisite  finish  given  to  the  whole.  The  body  of  the  chariot  differs  in 
design  from  anything  which  has  hitherto  met  our  notice.  On  a  line 
with  the  front  and  upright  stands  the  empty  quiver ;  and  slung  at  the 
side,  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees,  hangs  an  ornament  reversed, 
similar  to  the  one  seen  between  the  horses  in  the  chariots  from  Nim- 
roud  previously  given.  For  what  use  these  were  originally  intended 
is  not  clear,  probably  more  as  an  ornament  than  for  any  practical  pur- 


>  B.  C.  720.  For  an  account  of  this  expedition,  see  2  Kings,  ch.  xviii.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  Assyrian's  story  as  detailed  on  the  slab  :  "Because  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judea, 
did  not  submit  to  my  yoke,  forty-six  of  his  strong-fenced  cities  and  innumerable  smaller 
towns  which  depended  on  them  I  took  and  plundered ;  but  I  left  to  him  Jerusalem,  his 
capital  city,  and  some  of  the  interior  towns  around  it.  .  .  .  And  because  Hezekiah 
still  continued  to  refuse  to  pay  me  homage,  I  attacked  and  carried  off  the  whole  popu- 
lation, fixed  and  nomadic,  which  dwelled  around  Jerusalem,  with  thirty  talents  of  gold 
and  eight  hundred  talents  of  silver,  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  nobles  of  Hezekiah's 
court  and  of  their  daughters,  with  the  officers  of  his  palace,  men-slaves  and  women- 
slaves,  I  returned  to  Nineveh,  and  I  accounted  their  spoil  for  the  tribute  which  he 
refused  to  pay  me."  Even  the  will  of  this  monarch,  in  baked  brick,  is  shown  in  the 
British  Museum.  The  following  is  Mr.  Smith's  translation:  "I,  Sennacherib,  king  of 
multitudes,  king  of  Assyria,  have  given  chains  of  gold,  heaps  of  ivory,  a  cup  of  gold, 
crowns  and  chains,  with  them,  all  the  wealth  that  [I  have]  in  heaps,  crystal,  and 
another  precious  stone,  and  bird's  stone ;  one  and  a  half  maneh,  two  and  a  half  cibi  in 
weight,  to  Esar-h  addon  my  son,  who  was  afterward  named  Assur-ebil-mucinpal 
according  to  my  wish.  The  treasure  [is  deposited]  in  the  temple  Amuk  and  [Nebo] 
irik-ei-ba,  harpists  of  Nebo."  This  is  probably  the  oldest  will  extant,  and  consequently 
of  much  interest. 

^  Some  writers  conjecture  that  it  was  designed  to  separate  the  horses.  Was  not  the 
pole  sufficient  for  thai  purpose? 


86 


ASSYBIA]^   WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


ASSTBIAIf  AND  EGYPTIAN  HAENESS   COMPABED.        87 

pies,  and  the  harness  and  trappings  are  of  superior  finish.  The  tails 
of  the  horses,  too,  are  tied  in  a  knot  unlike  those  from  Nimroud  and 
Khorsabad,  but  which  fashion  will  be  seen  again  in  the  bass-reliefs 
and  sculptures  from  Persepolis. 

Passing  by  other  objects  in  Layard's  work,i  many  of  them  deeply 
interesting,  we  come  to  a  plate  numbered  XLII  (see  next  page) ,  and 
find  "  the  great  king "  Sennacherib  represented  once  more  as  standing 
in  his  chariot  before  a  besieged  city,  possibly  Lachish,  accompanied 
by  his  charioteer,  and  eunuch  umbrella-bearer,  holding  one  of  peculiar 
make  over  his  royal  head.  The  chariot,  attended  by  soldiers,  differs 
but  little  in  outline  from  the  one  represented  on  the  previous  page, 
but  is  richer  in  finish.  The  artist  evidently  forgot  to  put  a  pole  in 
this  vehicle,  a  matter  of  some  regret.  The  harness  in  this  instance  is 
much  plainer  than  the  last,  and  there  is  an  ornament  rising  from  the 
saddle  after  an  entirely  new  pattern.  The  inscription,  in  Assyrian 
characters,  gives  the  history  of  the  visit  of  Sennacherib  to  Judea,  as 
previously  related  in  a  note. 

Although  in  many  respects  the  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  harness  and 
trappings  resemble  each  other,  still  in  some  points  they  differ.  Pend- 
ent at  the  sides  of  the  horses  we  find  a  circular  ornament  terminating 
in  tassels  analogous  to  that  divided  into  thongs  in  the  Egyptian,  which 
some  suppose  were  intended  to  accelerate  the  pace  of  the  animal,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  spiked  balls  fastened  to  the  trappings  of  race-horses  on 
the  Corso  in  modern  Kome.  In  both  examples,  several  bands  pass 
over  the  chest,  and,  lapping  over  the  shoulders  of  the  horse,  join  the 
ligaments  attached  to  the  yoke  or  pole.  A  remarkable  band  or  thong, 
through  the  upper  end  of  which  passes  a  single  rein,  is  the  same  in 
both.  The  tails  of  the  Assyrian  horses,  on  the  bass-reliefs  from  Nim- 
roud and  Khorsabad,  are  fancifully  compressed  in  the  center,  while 
the  Egyptian  have  a  band  round  the  upper  part  or  root  of  the  tail. 
Around  the  necks  of  the  Assyrian  horses,  as  in  the  last  example,  is  a 
string  of  alternately  large  and  small  beads,  which  appear  to  have 
cuneiform  characters  cut  upon  them,  —  possibly  a  series  of  amulets  or 
charms,  according  to  the  custom  of  many  Oriental  nations  of  the 
present  day.     The  head-dress  of  the  horses  differs  from  the  Egyptian, 


'  The  curious  reader  who  would  study  the  history  of  Seuuacherib  further,  will  be 
interested  in  Layard's  series  of  plates,  from  XX  to  XXIV  iuclusivo. 


ASSYRIAN  WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


and  is  the  mutation  of  some  fifteen  hundred  years.  There  are  two 
horses  attached  to  this  chariot,  which,  in  accordance  with  Assyrian  art 
generally,  are  improperly  shown  in  the  engraving. 


TROY  IN  ALLIANCE   WITH  ASSYBIA.  89 

Some  have  surmised  that  the  walls  of  Nimroud  furnish  us  with 
examples  of  the  Trojan  chariot,  the  intermediate  stage  between  those 
portrayed  at  Khorsabad  and  Kouyunjik  and  those  introduced  by 
Cyrus.  ^  It  is  evident  from  the  testimony  of  ancient  writers  that  Troy 
was  in  close  alliance  with  the  Assyrians  at  one  period  of  her  history. 
Plato  says  that  "  when  Teutamus  —  who  was  the  twentieth  from  Ninus, 
the  son  of  Semiramis  —  reigned  in  Asia,  the  Grecians,  under  their 
general,  Agamemnon,  made  war  upon  the  Trojans,  at  which  time  the 
Assyrians  had  been  lords  of  Asia  above  a  thousand  years.  For  Priam, 
the  king  of  Troy  (being  a  prince  under  the  Assyrian  empire  when  war 
was  made  upon  him),  sent  ambassadors  to  crave  aid  of  Teutamus,  who 
sent  him  ten  thousand  Ethiopians,  and  as  many  out  of  the  province  of 
Susiana,  with  two  hundred  chariots  under  the  conduct  of  Memnon,  the 
son  of  Tithon."2 

We  have  now  produced  the  chief  features  in  Assyrian  chariots,  as 
shown  on  the  lately  exhumed  bass-reliefs,  and  may  with  Rawlinson,  in 
his  "Ancient  Monarchies,"  very  properly  inquire,  "Was  the  art  of  the 
Assyrians  of  home  growth,  or  imported  from  the  Egyptians  either 
directly  or  by  way  of  Phoenicia  ?  The  latter  view  has  sometimes  been 
taken ;  but  the  most  cursory  study  of  the  Assyrian  remains  in  chrono- 
logical order  is  sufficient  to  disprove  the  theory,  since  it  shows  that 
the  earliest  specimens  of  Assyrian  art  are  the  most  un-Egyptian  in 
character.3  No  doubt  there  are  certain  analogies  even  here,  as  the 
preference  for  the  profile  (although,  as  we  have  seen,  this  is  no  longer 
given  in  outline  merely) ,  the  stifi'ness  and  formality,  the  ignorance  and 
disregard  of  perspective,  and  the  like ;  but  the  analogies  are  such  as 
would  be  tolerably  sure  to  occur  in  the  early  efforts  of  any  two  races 
not  very  dissimilar  to  one  another,  while  the  little  resemblances  which 
alone  prove  connection  are  entirely  wanting.     These  do  not  appear  till 

'  According  to  our  theory  this  "surmise"  cannot  be  true,  as  we  have  considered 
the  sculptures  from  Nimroud  much  the  oldest  of  the  three.     See  page  72. 

2  Plato,  De  Legibus,  B.  III.  Plato  further  informs  us  that  this  Tithou  was  governor 
of  Persia,  and  a  favorite  with  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  that  he  showed  great  valor 
before  the  walls  of  Troy,  slaying  many  Grecians,  previous  to  falling  into  an  ambush 
of  Thessalians,  who  slew  him.  Troy  was  taken  A.  M.  2820,  B.  C.  1131  years;  and  the 
Assyrian  monarchy,  according  to  Berosus,  ended  A.  M.  2317.  This  account  is  unsup- 
ported by  subsequent  historians. 

^  During  the  eighteenth  dynasty  Egypt  and  Assyria  wei-e  in  close  connection,  as  is 
shown  by  the  relics  collected  from  the  ruins  of  the  latter. 


90 


ASSYBIAN  WOELI)   01^  WHEELS. 


we  como  to  monuments  which  belong  to  the  time  of  Sargon,  when 
direct  connection  between  Egypt  and  Assyria  seems  to  have  begun, 
and  Egyptian  captives  are  known  to  have  been  transported  into  Meso- 
potamia in  great  numbers." 


Supposed  Je^vish  Captives 


Besides  the  chariots  which  we  have  endeavored  to  describe,  we  find 
several  carts,  cliiefly  taken  from  contemporary  nations  with  whom  the 
Assyrians  liad  waged  war,  among  tlie  relics  from  Kouyunjik,  the 
originals  of  which  are  in  the  British  Museum.     These  are  supposed  to 

j>  represent  the  vehicles  captured 
^^^^^  by  the  Assyrians  from  the  Elam- 
ites  and  perhaps  some  other  na- 
tions, which  as  trophies  were 
considered  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance for  a  place  in  these  ancient 
records  of  the  nation's  history. 
The  engraving  is  supposed  to 
represent  a  cart  taken  from  Ar- 
menia or  Judea,  in  which  women  are  carried  into  captivity.  This  cart, 
drawn  by  a  yoke  of  oxen,  has  eight  spokes  in  the  wheel,  the  usual 
number  given  by  Assyrians  of  this  period  to  chariots.  As  the  palm- 
tree  figures  on  the  slab  from  which  this  picture  is  taken,  the  inference 
is  that  the  captives  were  inhabitants  of  some  part  of  Babylonia,  or 
possibly  of  Judea,  against  which,  as  we  have  seen,  Sennacherib  led 
an  army  of  invasion.  The  dress  of  the  captives  appears  to  be  that 
of  Jewish  women. 

Some  of  the  bass-reliefs  represent  carts  drawn  by  mules.  Such  is 
the  case  in  the  copy  rep- 
resented here,  mounted 
on  which  are  shown 
some  of  the  captives  of 
Sennacherib  carried  off 
from  Susiana.  These 
simple  machines  were 
not  only  used  for  the 
transportation  of  mer- 
chandise from  one  place  Supposed  Susianian  Mule-team. 


CABTS   THE  SPOILS   OF  CONQUEST. 


91 


to  another,  but,  instead  of  chariots,  for  warlike  purposes,  some  of  them 
being  capable  of  seating  five  or  six  persons,  as  we  see  in  the  Elamitish 
cart,  where  the  floor  is  covered  with  a 
sort  of  carpet,  set  off  with  fringe. 

In  the  next  illustration  we  find  a  sin- 
gular sort  of  cart,  the  platform  or  body 
of  which  is  mounted  on  exceedingly 
high  wheels,  having  likewise  in  each 
twelve  spokes.  This  cart  is  supposed, 
from  the  accompanying  description,  to 
have  been  taken  from  the  Elamites. 
On  it  we  find  a  number  of  Assyrian 
soldiers  driving  furiously  over  the  bat- 
tle-field, regardless  of  the  bodies  of  the 
wounded  and  slain  with  which  it  is 
thickly  strewn.  As  usual  with  the  an- 
cients when  recounting  their  warlike 
deeds,  no  Assyrians  are  found  to  have 
been  killed  on  this  occasion. 

On  some  of  the  smaller  carts  repre- 
sented on  the  bass-reliefs  we  find 
only  the  driver  and  a  single  warrior 
sitting  upon  a  raised  seat  or  dais. 
Layard  supposes  that  this  descrip- 
tion of  cart,  or  "wheels,"  is  alluded 
to  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel,i  when  he 
speaks  of  "the  chariots,  wagons,  and 
wheels "  belonging  to  "  the  Babylo- 
nians, and  all  the  Chaldeans,  Pekod, 
and  Shoa,  and  Koa,  and  all  the 
Assyrians,"  who  should  come  up 
against  Aholibah  (Jerusalem) .  The  harness  of  the  mules  was  of  the 
most  simple  description,  having  a  band  around  the  chest,  set  off"  with 
rosettes,  tassels,  and  a  head-stall.  Sometimes  the  guiding  of  the 
animal  was  performed  by  a  rod  in  the  hands  of  the  driver. 

Another  bass-relief  represents  a  party  of  captives  resting  after  a 


'  Ezekicl,  cli.  xxiii,  v.  23,  2-t,  et  seq. 


92 


ASSYRIAN   WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 


Mule-team   and   Party   at   Rest. 


fatiguing  journey,  having  unliarnessed  their  mules  from  a  loaded  cart, 
and  fed  them  with  grain  of  some  kind,  which  they  appear  to  be  eating. 
Between  the  mules  and  the  cart  a  woman  is  seated  on  a  stone,  holding 

a  child.    In  front 

'  - — -        ^^  JLss&v  of  her  appears  a 

man,       probably 
,    ^  ^  ,      ^  ^    ^  h  e  r    h  u  s  b  and, 

?5?///k^^>^\\V       U  Wo^rillC  /k  y     i\  V A    v^  drinking  from  a 

cup  in  the  most 
primitive  fashion. 
A  remarkable 

feature  in  this  engraving  is,  it  has  only  a  four-spoked  wheel,  the  whole 
being  very  rude  and  clumsily  made. 

The  slabs  from  which  all  these  carts  are  copied  undoubtedly  repre- 
sent the  spoils  of  victory  obtained  by  Sennacherib  in  some  of  his  expe- 
ditions against  the  nations,  as  they  were  found  among  the  ruins  of  his 
palace.  In  the  third  year  of  his  reign  he  overran  all  Syria,  subjecting 
the  peoj^lc  to  his  authority.  Afterwards  he  took  Samaria,  carrying 
away  the  people  with  him.  Ten  years  later  he  went  up  against  all  the 
fenced  cities  of  Judah  and  took  them.  So  greatly  did  he  frighten  the 
good  King  Hezekiah,  that  to  get  rid  of  the  invader  he  paid  "  three  hun- 
dred talents  of  silver  and  thirty  talents  of  gold."  i  This  victory  is 
supposed  to  be  recorded  on  the  slabs  representing  our  carts ;  the  disas- 
trous expedition  afterwards  undertaken,  from  which  he  returned  to  be 
murdered  by  his  sons,  not  appearing  to  have  been  preserved  anywhere 
outside  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ. 


2  Kings,  ch.  xviii,  v.  14. 


BASS-EELIEFS  FROM  THE  EUINS   OF  PERSEPOLIS.        93 


II. 


PERSIAN    CHARIOTS     (iNT^tmemG^SeYTHE) ,    THE    HARMAMAXA,    AND 

Alexander's  funeral,  car. 


"  Thus  they  with  vague  surmises  in  crowds  discoursed, 
Listening  and  whispering  ;  wlien  in  burnislied  car 
Pelius,  with  mules  all  panting,  thither  forced 
Ilii-'  winged  speed." 


Pindar's  Pithian  IV 


S  the  Persian  Em- 
pire grew  out  of 
the  ruins  of  the 
_'%  Assyrian,  it  is 
quite  natural 
to  suppose  that 
its  architecture 
and  other  artis- 
tic productions  should  partake  somewhat  of  the  pattern  set  by  that 
nation.  Such,  we  learn  from  Herodotus,  was  the  case.  If  any  doubt 
remained,  it  would  be  removed  by  the  character  of  the  few  bass-reliefs 
still  extant  among  the  ruins  of  Persepolis.^    In  Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter's 


^  "  Chebel-Mlnar,  or  Persepolis,  according  to  the  Dahistan,  a  work  compiled  from 
ancient  Geber  fragments,  was  founded  by  Jcmsheed,  the  sixth  king  of  Persia,  who  was 
contemporary  with  Zohawk,  a  tyrant  of  Assyria,  who  is  supposed  to  be  the  Nimrod 
of  Scripture." — Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter's  Travels  in  Georgia,  Persia,  Armenia,  An- 
cient Babylon,  etc.,  2  vols.,  London,  1821.  Other  writers  ascribe  its  organization  to 
Darius  Hystaspes,  he  being  a  Persian  (B.  C.  521).  After  the  establishment  of  the 
empire  by  Cyrus,  his  successors  divided  their  residence  between  Babylon,  Susa,  and 
Ecbatana,  the  principal  city  of  Media,  of  which  he  was  before  that  simply  king.  In 
the  days  of  its  prosperitj--,  Persepolis  was  one  of  the  wealthiest  as  well  as  most  august 
cities  of  the  world.  After  the  battle  of  Arbela  (B.  C.  320),  when  Alexander  obtained 
a  signal  victory  over  the  Persians,  ho  marched  his  army  into  Persepolis,  taking  it  by 


94 


PEBSIAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


account  of  his  travels,  there  is  the  representation  of  a  chariot,  which 
he  copied  from  the  original,  sculptured  on  a  staircase  to  one  of  its 
edifices.  An  ancient  coin  found  among  the  ruins  of  Babylon  gives  us 
a  similar  picture.      The  portion  here  represented  is  thus  described 

by  our  author : 
"The  two  rc- 
mainingpersons 
of  the  group  are 
beside  a  large 
chariot,  which 
is  drawn  by  a 
magnificent  pair 
of  horses ;  one 
of  the  men,  in 
ampler  gar- 
ments than  his 

Chariot   from   the    Eoins   of   Persepolib.  COninecrS        and 

bareheaded,  holds  the  bridles  of  the  horses.  His  companion  in  the 
rear  .  .  .  follows,  leaning  his  left  hand  on  the  backs  of  the  animals 
and  holding  a  long  wand  in  the  other.  The  horses  are  without  trap- 
pings, but  the  details  of  their  bits  and  the  manner  of  reining  them  are 
executed  with  the  utmost  care.  The  pole  of  the  car  is  seen  passing 
behind  the  horses,  projecting  from  the  center  of  the  carriage,  which  is 
in  a  cylindrical  shape,  elevated  rather  above  the  line  of  the  animals' 
heads.  The  wheel  of  the  car  is  extremely  light  and  tastefully  put 
together.  In  fact,  the  whole  of  this  chariot  group  is  portrayed  and 
finished  with  a  beauty  and  accuracy  that  alike  excite  our  wonder  and 
admiration." 

The  next  illustration,  likewise  from  the  ruins  of  Persepolis,  is 
copied  from  Niebuhr,^  who  describes  it  as  a  currus.     The  chariot  in 

storm,  and  putting  its  inhabitants  to  death.  During  his  stay  tliere,  at  the  solicitation 
of  a  courtesan  wlio  had  captivated  him,  he  burned  the  greater  portion  of  the  city,  —  an 
act  which  in  his  more  sober  moments  he  exceedingly  regretted.  Persepolis  seems 
never  to  liaA'e  recovered  from  this  disaster,  but  gradually  to  have  fallen,  until  a  final 
blow  was  given  to  it  by  Sumeanah-a-Doulah,  a  vizier  of  the  caliph  of  Bagdad,  then 
master  of  Persia,  in  A.  D.  982. 

*  Carsten  Niebuhr,  a  native  of  Hanover,  with  four  other  gentlemen,  was,  in  17G1, 
sent  on  an  expedition  into  Arabia  and  India  by  the  Danish  government  for  the 
advancement  of  geographical  knowledge.     All  perished  except  Niebuhr,  who  alone 


CHARIOrS   FROM  PERSEPOLIS. 


95 


this  instance  is  in  a  l)ctter  stato  of  preservation  than  the  last.  Like 
the  first  example  in  this  cliapter,  the  wheels  are  roughly  shod,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  Assyrian 
on  page  88.  The  j)osition 
of  the  men,  and  the  manner 
in  Avhicli  they  clasp  the  horses 
with  their  arms,  is  charac- 
teristic and  worthy  of  note, 
going  to  prove  that  most 
likely  they  are  both  the  pro- 
duction of  the  same  artist. 
The  chariot  is  similar  to  the 
triumphal  chariot  of  Eome, 
as  will  hereafter  be  seen. 

The  illustration  on  next  page  is  taken  from  a  bass-relief  which 
mifortunately  has  only  come  down  to  us  in  a  fragmentary  state,  but 
which  supplies  us  with  a  much  improved  figure  of  the  Persian  chariot, 
and  is  evidently  of  a  much  later  date  than  the  above.  Of  its  Persian 
origin  there  remains  no  doubt,  the  head-dress  of  the  charioteer  and  the 
trappings  of  the  horses  furnishing  sufiicient  evidence  of  the  fact,  but  a 
more  perfect  original  is  desirable  in  order  to  fully  satisfy  the  mind  of 
an  antiquarian.  The  curve-shaped  ornament  fixed  over  the  saddle  is 
similar  to  the  one  attached  to  the  saddles  of  Sennacheril)'s  horses  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  It  is  a  noticeable  feature  in  all  representations  of 
Persian  chariots,  that  they  invariably  show  only  two  horses  on  the 
bass-reliefs  which  have  come  down  to  us.  Modern  historians  have 
added  more,  but  with  doubtful  authority. 

The  illustration  on  page  97  is  copied  from  a .  bass-relief  in  baked 
earth  from  the  Lyons  collection  in  France.  It  formerly  belonged  to 
M.  Eaoul  Kochette,  keeper  of  the  cabinet  of  medals,  after  the  death 
of  whom  it  came  into  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Lyons.  A  writer  in 
the  "  Magasin  Pittoresque  "  has  supposed  this  to  have  had  an  Etruscan 
origin,  and  describes  it  as  "  representing  some  incident  in  mythology 
which  seems  to  have  been  a  common  fund  for  the  artists  of  Greece  and 
Etruria.  Its  style,  which  classes  it  among  the  works  of  a  very  remote 
time,  and  all  its  details,  make  it  an  interesting  subject  of  study. 

pursued  his  journey  through  the  Persian  Gulf,  Bagdad,  Armenia,  and  Asia  Minor, 
returning  home  in  17G7. 


96 


PERSIAN'    WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


"  Two  men  are  seen  standing  in  a  chariot ;  tliey  appear  to  be  war- 
riors, or  rather  a  hero  and  his  esquire  or  charioteer,  as  it  will  be 
observed  that  the  one  wearing  a  plumed  helmet  carries  a  lance  and 
buckler,  while  the  other  is  only  covered  with  defensive  armor,  and 
seems  to  be  solely  occupied  in  guiding  the  horses  which  draw  the 

chariot.     By  the 
position    of    the 
arm  it  is  evident 
that  he  is  about 
to  turn  the  team 
to  the  right.  Both 
.     men   have   their 
3     eyes  fixed  on  a 
bird,     doubtless 
;     of   good    omen, 
\     while  it  is  flying 
;     before  them.     It 
;     is  known  that  the 
;     ancients        drew 
\     omens  from  the 
;     flight   of   birds ; 
!     that  the  appari- 
;     tion    of    certain 
kinds  of  birds  at 
\     the      commence- 
!     ment  of  an  expe- 
j     dition,  or  in  any 
:     other        circum- 
>     stance  of  doubt- 
1     ful  issue,  was  in- 
voked, and  inter-T 
preted ,  according 
to  the    direction 
of  their  flight,  as 
a  sign  of  the  ce- 
lestial will.    The 

eagle,  the  falcon,  and  other  birds  of  prey  were  particularly  considered 
the  messenger  of  some  divinity.     The  bird  which  wings  its  flight  over 


BIRDS  AS  INDICATORS    OF   CHRONOLOGY. 


97 


the  chariot,  as  if  descending  from  heaven,  appears  to  be  of  this  kind. 
A  similar  bird  is  represented  on  the  buckler  of  the  principal  warrior ; 
it  is  the  emblem  by  which  he  may  be  recognized  when  he  advances 
with  the  lowered  visor  in  the  midst  of  the  battle.  We  have,  therefore, 
an  additional  motive  for  believing  that  the  presence  of  the  bird  which 
is  flying  before  him  is  not  an  indifferent  circumstance.  In  Greek  and 
Etruscan  painted  vases,  birds  are  thus  frequently  represented  accom- 
panying warriors  and  chariots.  It  is,  unfortunately,  difficult  to  say 
precisely  to  what  species  the  bird  before  us  belongs;  if  we  knew,  we 
could  perhaps  know  also  who  the  warrior  is  who  has  taken  it  for  his 


Supposed   Persian    Chariot   froi 


Lyons   Collec 


distinctive  insignia,  and  know  to  a  certainty  what  scene  of  the  heroic 
mythology  is  here  represented. 

"  The  details  of  the  team,  the  harness,  and  the  chariot  are  interesting 
to  observe.  The  body  of  the  chariot  seems  to  be  made  of  a  light 
wood,  as  of  interlaced  canes.  Similar  chariots  are  seen  in  the  Assyrian 
bass-reliefs,  and  others,  somewhat  resembling  this,  on  Etruscan  and 
Grecian  painted  vases.  A  chariot  thus  constituted  must  have  been  of 
extreme  rapidity  and  of  scarcely  any  weight.  Such  was,  no  doubt, 
under  the  sheets  of  gold  and  silver  which  covered  it,  the  chariot 
Avhich  Diomede  took  as  spoil  from  Ehesus  after  having  killed 
him;  in  fact,  ho  delilicratod  with  himself,  says  the  poet,  as  to 
7 


98  PEB8IAN   WOBLB    ON  WHEELS. 

whether  he  would  take  it  off  of  its  wheels  and  cany  it  away  on  his 

shoulders."! 

The  French  editor  has  evidently  mistaken  his  subject.     It  is  well 

known  that  the  Persians  Avere  strenuous  believers  in  auguries^  and 

omens,   as  appears  from  the  works  of  Xenophon.      This   chariot  is 

probably,  like  the  other,  a  Persian  relic  of  a  still  later  time.     Its 

general  character  leads  to  such  a  conclusion. 

The  next  illustration,  also  from  the  ruins  of  Persepolis,  is  selected 

from  a  number  of  representations  of  different  deities  typical  of  the 

seasons.  This  small  wheel-carriage 
served  as  a  sort  of  moving  j)latform 
for  one  of  their  idols, ^  who  was 
seated  upon  it  in  Oriental  style. 
The  mode  of  attaching  the  axle  to 
the  carriage  differs  from  that  of  the 
Greek  and  Eoman  cars  of  a  contem- 
poraneous period,  or,  indeed,  from 
any  other  we  have  seen  in  antique 

Persian  Idol-car.  sculpture  Or  elscwherc.^ 

Having  disposed  of  the  chariots  after  the  old  model,  which  Xenophon 
says  came  from  Troy,^  we  come  now  to  consider  those  with  scythes, 
said  to  have  been  invented  by  Cyrus,  although  such  are  reported  to 
have  been  employed  in  the  army  of  Ninus,  one  of  the  earlier  kings  of 
Assyria.^ 

About  the  time  of  his  contemplated  expedition  against   Sardis,  a 

'  See  Homer's  Iliad,  B.  X,  503-505. 

*  Augury,  which  in  the  Greek  language  originally  signiflecl  a  bird,  was  by  metaphor 
talien  to  signify  that  discovery  of  futurity  to  which  birds  were  supposed  instrumental. 

^  Xenophon  says  (Cyropedia,  B.  LVII,  ch.  3)  that  Cyrus,  in  sacrificing  to  the  gods, 
among  other  things  offered  "  a  wliite  chariot,  with  its  perch  of  gold,  adorned  with  a 
crown  or  wreath  around  it,  and  sacred  to  Jove.  After  this  a  white  chariot,  sacred  to 
the  sun,  adorned  with  a  crown  as  that  before.  After  this  proceeded  a  third  chariot, 
with  its  horses  adorned  Avith  scarlet  coverings,"  etc.  Q.  Curtius  (B.  LIT,  ch.  3)  also 
refers  to  this  sacriflce.  Layard  (Mneveh,  p.  151)  mentions  two  chariots  dedicated  to 
sacred  purposes  in  the  sculptures  of  Khorsabad. 

*  English  Pleasure  Carriages,  by  Wm.  B.  Adams,  London,  1837,  p.  24. 

*  Xenophou's  Institution  of  Cyrus,  B.  VI.     Cyrus  was  born  A.  C.  599. 

®  Ctesias,  a  much  older  writer  than  Xenophon,  says  that  Ninus,  the  son  of  Nimrod, 
who  is  supposed  to  have  founded  Nineveh,  in  his  expedition  against  the  Bactrians, 
had  an  army  that  "consisted  of  seventeen  hundred  thousand  foot,  two  hundred  thou- 
sand horse,  and  about  sixteen  thousand  chariots  armed  with  scythes." 


SCYTHE-CIIABIOTS  AS  INSTBUMENTS   OF   WAK. 


99 


dependency  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  Cyrus  conceived  the  idea  of  con- 
structing something  which  he  thought  would  prove  more  effective  in 
battle  than  the  old-fashioned  chariots.  With  this  object  in  view,  new 
chariots  were  built  out  of  such  material  as  ho  could  lay  his  hands  upon, 
and  the  old  ones  captured  from  his  enemies  in  previous  contests  were 
repaired,  and  all  fitted  out  with  scythes  according  to  his  instructions. 
Xenophon,  who  writes  from  personal  knowledge,  says  that  Cyrus  had 
such  a  low  estimate  of  the  chariots  before  in  use  among  the  Cyrenians, 
Medes,  Arabians,  Syrians,  and  other  Asiatic  nations,  that  he  utterly 
abolished  them.  He  entertained  the  opinion  that  formerly  the  very 
best  of  the  men,  those  which  probably  constituted  the  chief  strength 
of  the  army,  mounted  in  the  chariots,  had,  in  fact,  only  acted  the  part 
of  skirmishers  at  a  distance,  and  had  contributed  but  very  little 
towards  the  obtaining  of  a  victory.  He  argued  that  three  hundred 
chariots  would  require  three  hundred  combatants,  requiring  twelve 
hundred  horses,  demanding  a  driver  for  each  chariot,  whose  skill  was 
entirely  lost  in 
guiding  the  char- 
iot, without  con- 
tributing in  the 
least  to  a  victory. 
The  chariots  in- 
vented l)y  Cyrus 
are  said  to  have 
been  provided  with 
wheels  of  great 
strength,  so  as  not 
to  be  easily  broken, 
and  with  axle-trees 


Persian  Scythe-chariot. 


that  were  very 

long,  because,  if  the  track  was  very  broad,  they  would  not  so  easily 

be  overturned.     The  box  for  the  driver  he  had  made  like  a  turret. 


'  The  engraving,  copied  from  Giuzrot's  Wagen  und  Fahrwerke,  is  supposed  to  repre- 
sent a  chariot  of  about  tlie  description  given  us  in  the  notes  of  Xenoplion.  Altliough 
the  ordinary  scytlie-chariot  was  only  mounted  by  one  man,  or  driver,  there  were  on 
those  of  tlie  leaders,  besides  the  leader  himself,  a  driver  and  sometimes  another  com- 
batant. The  horses  here,  four  in  number,  are  mailed,  but  it  requires  little  reflection 
to  see  that  two  were  better  than  more  in  battle. 


100  PERSIAN    WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 

with  strong  pieces  of  timber ;  and  the  highest  of  these  boxes  reached 
lip  to  the  elbows  of  the  drivers,  that,  reaching  over  these  boxes,  they 
could  drive  the  liorses.  Tliese  drivers  were  covered,  all  but  their 
eyes,  with  armor.  To  the  axle-trees  at  the  ends  he  attached  steel 
scythes  about  two  feet  and  a  half  long,  and  below,  under  the  axle- 
trees,  he  fixed  others,  pointing  to  the  ground,  intending  with  these 
chariots  to  break  in  on  the  enemy. 

Abradatus,  king  of  the  Susians,  who  had  revolted  from  the  Assyrian 
government  and  joined  his  fortunes  with  those  of  Cyrus,  observing  his 
leader  engaged  in  his  newly  invented  chariots,  followed  suit  with  one 
hundred  for  his  own  service,  mounted  on  one  of  which  he  intended  to 
lead  the  van.  This  intended  for  his  own  personal  use  he  framed  with 
four  perches,  to  which  he  harnessed  eight  horses,  in  this  instance  dis- 
tancing our  three-perch  contemporaries  several  centuries.  Panthea, 
his  wife,  having  provided  him  with  a  golden  corselet,  head  and  arm 
pieces,  and  his  horses  with  brass  defenses,  no  doubt  he  considered 
himself  invulnerable,  although,  as  the  sequel  proved,  a  fall  from  his 
chariot  ended  in  death. 

Seeing  Abradatus'  four-perch  chariot,  Cyrus  considered  that  it  might 
be  advantageous  to  make  one  with  eight,  so  as  to  draw  the  lower 
frame  of  his  machine  with  eight  yoke  of  oxen.  This  engine  of  war, 
together  with  its  wheels,  was  upwards  of  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground. 
On  these  frames  he  made  open  spaces  to  move  about  in,  and  strong 
defenses,  and  on  each  of  these  turrets  he  mounted  twenty  men.  When 
he  had  completed  these  turrets,  and  tested  their  draft  l3y  experi- 
ment with  eight  yoke  of  oxen,  with  the  twenty  men  thereon  mounted, 
he  found  it  could  be  drawn  with  more  ease  than  a  single  yoke  had  for- 
merly drawn  the  common  baggage-weight,  for  the  weight  of  baggage 
was  about  twenty-five  talents  (about  fourteen  hundred  and  twenty-five 
pounds)  to  each  yoke ;  but  the  draft  of  a  turret  whose  wooden 
frame  was  as  broad  as  a  tragic  stage,  together  with  twenty  men  and 
their  arms,  amounted  to  but  fifteen  talents  (about  eiglit  hundred  and 
fifty-five  pounds)  to  each  yoke.  Some  of  these  chariots  were  so  high 
that  when  mounting,  as  in  the  case  of  Abradatus,  they  did  so  "by  the 
door  of  the  driver's  seat,"  shutting  the  door  after  them.  This  opera- 
tion, on  a  certain  occasion,  deprived  Panthea  of  the  pleasure  of  kissing 
her  husband ;  so,  having  no  other  way  of  saluting  him,  she  "  kissed  the 
seat  of  the  chariot,"  in  testimony  of  afiisction. 


MODE  EN  GBITIGISM  OF  SCYTHE-CHARIOTS.  101 

Afterwards  these  scythe-chariots  were  tried  in  an  encounter  with 
the  chariots  of  the  Egyptians  in  the  army  of  Croesus.  By  the  rapid 
movements  of  the  horses,  the  Egyptian  vehicles  were  overturned,  and, 
being  cut  to  pieces,  men,  arms,  horses,  and  wheels,  and  whatsoever 
these  sc3i:hes  came  in  contact  with,  were  destroyed,  throwing  every- 
thing into  inexpressible  confusion.  But  poor  Abradatus,  being  exces- 
sively jolted  in  passing  over  the  heaps  of  all  kinds  which  his  bravery 
had  caused,  fell  with  others  of  his  party,  and  was  cut  down  and  killed 
by  his  own  instruments  in  the  confusion  which  followed.  This  battle, 
although  Cyrus  lost  his  faithful  ally  therein,  yet  gained  for  his  scythe- 
chariots  such  a  world-wide  fame  that  they  were  used  by  his  successors 
for  many  years  afterwards. 

These  scythe-chariots,  by  some  termed  "  sickle-wagons,"  have  been 
the  theme  of  controversy  with  subsequent  writers,  to  the  criticisms  of 
whom  we  now  direct  the  attention  of  the  curious  reader.  Quintus 
Curtius,  in  o-ivinai:  an  account  of  the  battle  between  Alexander  and 
Darius,  tells  us  that  the  latter  had  '^  of  chariots,  armed  with  scythes, 
two  hundred,  the  grand  dependence  of  the  barbarians,  as  they  imagine 
such  machines  panic-strike  an  enemy.  Each  was  drawn  by  four  horses 
abreast.  The  four  poles  [one  between  each  pair  of  horses]  were  armed 
in  front  with  projecting  iron  spears  ;  the  transverse  beam,  in  position 
[the  splinter-bar  of  modern  carriages]  ,  but  massy,  to  wJiich  the  horses 
were  yoked,  carried  at  either  end  three  swords.  To  the  spokes  of  the 
wheels  shorter  blades  were  latterly  appended,  and  to  the  felloes  were 
fastened  scythes ;  other  scythes  pointed  [from  the  axle-trees]  towards 
the  ground,  to  mow  in  pieces  everything  in  the  way  of  the  precipitated 
car."  1 

Le  Clerc,  who  seems  to  have  taken  much  pains  in  weakening  our 
faith  in  the  veracity  of  Curtius,  remarks  that,  "in  his  description  of  the 
hooked  chariots,  he  has  these  words:  'At  the  end  of  the  pole  long 
spears  were  fixed,  pointing  forwards  ;  and  on  each  side  from  the  body 

'  Qaintus  Cartiiis,  B.  IV,  ch.  9,  London,  1809.  lu  giving  an  account  of  this  among 
other  things,  Arrian  says  :  "  Before  the  left  wing,  facing  Alexander's  riglit,  stood  about 
a  thousand  Scythian  and  Bactriau  horse,  and  a  hundred  armed  chariots ;  and  around 
Darius's  royal  guard  were  elephants  and  about  fifty  chariots.  Before  the  right  wing 
stood  the  Armenian  and  Cappadocian  horse  and  about  fifty  armed  chariots."  —  Rooke's 
Arrian,  Vol.  I,  p.  137,  London,  1814.  It  is  not  here  said  that  the  fifty  chariots  with  the 
royal  guard  were  armed,  but  the  probability  is  they  were,  and  if  so,  the  number,  agree- 
able to  Curtius,  is  confirmed. 


102  PEBSIAN  WORLD    OX  WHEELS. 

of  the  chariot  three  swords  were  placed.  This  is  not  difficult  to  be 
understood,  but  what  follows  would  be  extremely  difficult,  if  not  alto- 
gether unintelligible,  unless  we  depart  from  the  propriety  of  the  words, 
and  understand  not  so  much  what  Curtius  said  as  what  he  would  have 
said.  And  among  the  spokes  of  the  wheels  more  spears  stand  forth, 
directed  right  forwards ;  some  scythes  were  fixed  aloft  to  the  highest 
part  of  the  circumference  of  the  wheels,  and  others  below  towards  the 
earth,  to  cut  in  pieces  whoever  lay  prostrate  or  fell  in  their  way.' 

"Among  the  spokes  of  the  wheels,  properly  speaking,  nothing  could 
stand  forth  which  would  not  stop  the  motion  of  the  chariot.  Besides, 
what  means  he  by  '  right  forward '  ?  Can  spears  stand  forth  and 
not  point  right  forward?  Then  what  are  the  highest  parts  of  the 
circumference  of  the  wheels?  Are  they  not  the  ring  or  rounding? 
If  so,  in  the  ring  or  rounding  there  is  neither  higher  nor  lower  part 
while  the  wheel  is  in  motion,  because  every  part  thereof  is  highest  and 
lowest  by  turns.  Curtius  understood  it  thus,  as  appears  by  what  fol- 
lows :  'And  others  fixed  below,  towards  the  earth,'  How  could  scythes 
be  fixed  at  the  lowest  extremity  of  the  ring  [rim]  of  the  chariot  which 
would  not  hinder  its  motion?  John  Schefier^  judged  rightly  that  tlais 
description  was  very  much  entangled  and  imperfect,  and  so  it  was 
deemed  by  Godesc  Stevechius  and  Matthajus  Eaderus,  insomuch  that 
neither  of  them  durst  venture  to  take  a  draft  from  it.  But  wherever 
Curtius  had  this  description  of  a  hooked  chariot,  he  seems  not  to  have 
understood  his  author  from  whence  he  took  it.  He  ought  not  to  have 
said  that  the  scythes  stood  forth  from  among  the  spokes,  but  from  the 
nave  [hub]  of  the  wheel ;  then,  that  two  scythes  stood  forth  from  the 
end  of  the  axle-tree,  one  right  forward,  about  the  len<2:th  of  the  axle- 
tree  itself;  the  other  transverse,  and  pointed  towards  the  ground. 
The  scythes  and  spears  thus  standing  forth  from  the  wheels  or  axle- 
tree,  and  that  bent  downwards  from  tho  axle-tree,  were  not  only 
designed  to  cut  and  tear  in  pieces  all  who  stood  in  their  way,  but  also 
to  destroy  all  those  who  happened  either  to  be  thrown  down  by  the 
horses  or  the  tumult  and  hurry  of  the  people,  and  lay  not  far  distant. 

'  John  Scheffer  was  a  German  scholar  who  wrote  a  book  entitled  De  lie  Vehiculari 
in  the  Latiu  language,  which  was  published  at  Frankfort  by  Johanuis  Audreae  in  1671, 
pp.  422,  fifty-four  pages  of  which  at  the  end  are  occupied  with  a  work,  De  VehicuUs 
Antiquorum,  by  Pyrihi  Ligorii,  a  Neapolitan,  ^'nunquam  a7ite  puhlicata."  This  last  is 
briefly  written  in  Italian,  of  which  a  Latin  translation  in  parallel  columns  is  printed. 


LIVY  AND   CUBTIUS   ON  SCYTHE-CHARIOTS.  103 

"That  this,  or  something  like  it,  was  the  form  of  the  hooked  char- 
iots, I  am  fully  assured,  having  the  evidence  of  two  ancient  authors  on 
my  side,  the  one  a  Latin,  the  other  a  Greek.  Livy  thus  describes 
them :  '  The  hooked  chariots  were  most  commonly  armed  after  this 
manner :  the  two  scythes  which  they  had  from  the  beam  were  shaped 
like  horns  and  full  ten  cubits  in  length,  wherewith  they  tore  and  rent 
in  pieces  whatsoever  they  met ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  axle-tree  two 
others  stood  forth,  one  right  forward  and  the  other  pointing  downward, 
to  cut  asunder  and  make  havoc  of  whatever  lay  near  them.'  ^  For 
these  four  scythes  Curtius  has  three  swords,  which  are  not  capable  of 
doing  half  the  execution.  The  rest  he  thus  describes :  '  Also  at  the 
naves  of  the  wheels,  two  others  were  fixed  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
former.'  Curtius  aimed  at  something  like  this,  in  these  words  :  'And 
other  scythes  in  the  highest  part  of  the  circumference,'  etc.  But  his 
description  is  absurd,  and  would  be  unintelligible  if  Livy  did  not  help 
us  to  his  meaning.  Diodorus  Siculus,  discoursing  of  hooked  chariots, 
gives  us  this  description  of  them:  'From  each  of  them,'  says  he,  'at 
the  end  of  the  pole  were  fixed  spears  of  three  spans  in  length,  looking 
directly  against  the  enemy's  ranks.'  This  answers  to  the  former  part 
of  Curtius's  description,  and  what  follows  to  the  latter:  'And  in  the 
nave  of  the  axle-tree  (that  is,  beneath  the  chariot,  where  the  axle-tree 
holds  it  up)  two  other  darts  stood  out,  pointed  in  like  manner  against 
the  enemy's  ranks,  but  broader  and  longer  than  the  former.  Scythes 
were  also  fixed  upon  these  extremities  (that  is,  the  ends  of  the  axle- 
trees).'  I  fancy  from  these  or  some  such  like  descriptions,  ill  under- 
stood, Curtius  has  taken  his  absurd  and  imperfect  one;  for  which  see 
John  Scheffer,  who  has  taken  some  pains  to  reconcile  Curtius  to  com- 
mon-sense by  substituting  naves  for  the  outermost  ring  or  circumfer- 
ence.    But  to  me  it  is  no  wonder  that  a  man,  used  all  his  liffe-time  to 

'  Livy,  B.  XXXVII,  ch.  41.  Plutarch,  In  Luculto,  says  of  these  scythe-chariots 
(currus  falcata)  :  "  Hujusmoclo  pugnacis  vehiculi  genus,  quo  arrais  praetor  movis  vicle- 
tur  instructuor,  reperit  Partliicse  pugnse  necessitas,  sed  hoc,  singulis  bene  munitis 
invecti  equis,  duo  viri,  vestior  et  armis,  ferro  diligentea  rauuiti,  citato  cursum  in  pug- 
nam  rapirint,  cujus  posterior  supra  currum  pars,  cultus  in  orbem  extantibus  commu- 
nitur,  videlicet  ne  facilis  a  terga  cuiquam  prsebeatur  ascensus ;  falces  vero  acutissima 
axibus  ejusdem  currus  aptautur,  in  lateribus  suis  ansulas  habentes,  quibus  inuexi  funes 
pro  arbitrio  duorum  equitum,  laxata  quidera  explicant,  repressi  autem  eriguut  falces, 
qualia  vero  hujusmodi  machinal  funera  hostibus  immittaut,  vel  quas  turbatis  ordinibus 
strages  efficiaut,  diceut  melius  qui  usu  bella  cognoscunt." 


104 


PEBSIAN  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 


declaiming,  should  err  in  such  a  description;  and  I  would  not  have 
Scheffer,  or  any  one  else,  pretend  to  make  him  skilled  in  military 
terms,  in  spite  of  all  the  manuscript  copies  of  his  work."  i 

John  SchefFer's  efforts  "to  reconcile  Curtius  to  common-sense,"  al- 
luded to  by  Le  Clerc,  are  illustrated  with  two  figures  of  wheels  by 
himself,  which  we  reproduce  here.  They  are  evidence  of  the  author's 
ino-enuity,  but  as  settling  the  question  in  dispute,  of  not  much  value. 


Ancient  ScTTHE-cnARiOT  Wheel 


SCHEFFEK. 


The  wheel  as  described  by  Curtius  is  shown  at  A,  that  of  Diodorus 
Siculus  at  B.  The  first,  as  a  cutting  machine,  would  prove  a  failure  ; 
for  tearing,  it  would  be  effective.  The  arrangement  of  the  knives  at 
B  would  better  answer  the  purpose  of  mowing  down  the  ranks  of  an 
enemy,  could  they  be  induced  to  stand  for  the  trial. 

Ginzrot  thus 
speculates ;  "  I 
think  the 
scythes  Avcre 
attached,  not 
on  the  felloes, 
but  above 
them,  on  the 
body,  in  order 
to    allow    the 

G  ALBICAN   Covinus.-Fh""    -  ^  ^^  ^  =  "  ™  whccls  to  tum 


•  Lc  Clcrc's  criticism  of  Curtius,  prefixed  to  tlic  fourtli  chapter  of  Arrian,  London, 
ed.  1814. 


SCYTIIE-CHABIOT  DISCUSSION  CONTINUED.  105 

unobstructed.  In  this  way  the  scythes  had  a  firm  hold,  and  could  inflict 
more  damage  than  if  they  had  been  applied  to  the  wheels  or  felloes 
and  revolved  with  them.  Nearly  all  writers  treating  on  this  subject  are 
of  this  opinion,  and  Curtius  says  :  ^ Alias  deinde  fo.lces  summis  roiarum 
orhibus  liOdrebanV  [that  is,  other  sc}^hes  were  fixed  above  the  wheels, 
from  thence  curving  downward] .  The  scythes  could  easily  have  been 
attached  to  the  body,  as  the  engraving  shows,  and,  notwithstanding,  it 
might  be  said  they  extended  over  the  felloe,  for  Curtius  said,  not  that 
the  scythes  revolved  with  the  wheels,  but  ^hcerebant'  [they  were  fixed]  . 
We  have  to  remark  that  our  picture  is  not  designed  to  represent  the 
chariot  described  by  Curtius,  but  a  Galilean  covinus,  or  battle-wagon, 
mounted  with  scythes  all  around.  Just  as  well  might  sc}i;hcs  be 
applied  to  bodies  made  by  the  Persians,  which  originally  looked  like  a 
Grecian  '  diphron,'  but  later  were  made  closed  all  around." 

The  learned  in  subsequent  times  "  have  tired  themselves  with  suppo- 
sitions, and  given  in  their  works  all  kinds  of  engravings,  which,  instead 


iCYTHE-WAGON  BY  A  MODEUN  INVENTOR. 

of  furnishing  a  clearer  idea  of  the  thing,  have  rather  made  it  more  con- 
fused and  less  comprehensible.  Some  are  rather  to  be  admired  as 
works  of  art  than  to  be  accepted  as  quick-moving  vehicles. 

"  Most  of  these  savans  had  but  little  experience  in  the  art  of  car- 
riage-1>uilding,  and  did  not  care  much  if  the  picture  they  furnished  of 
them  could  or  could  not  be  imitated  [in  wood],  provided  they  embod- 
ied their  own  idea  and.  description.  He  who  wishes  to  convince  him- 
self of  this  fact  may  examine  the  edition  of  Stechevius  by  Vegetins,  or 
the  edition  of  Raderus  by  Curtius,  or  Potter's  "Greek  Archiologia,"  and 


106 


PEBSIAN    WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 


he  will  find  it  hard  to  understand  how  Stechevius  and  others  conceived 
the  idea  of  representing  such  wagons  with  four  wheels,  and  mounting 
the  horses  with  harness  without  a  yoke,  as  in  our  days ;  for  all  the  old 
ivriters  who  studied  them  well  left  no  room  for  this  supposition.  The 
scythe-wagons,  which  were  similar  to  the  ordinary  battle-wagons,  had 
only  two  wheels,  and  it  would  be  useless  to  construct  them  with  four. 

The  whole  shape 
of  the  body  did 
not  admit  of  any 
other  construc- 
tion. These  two- 
wheeled  wagons 
had  to  stand  a 
good  deal  to  get 
throuo-h  on  rouo:h 
roads,  swampy 
grounds ,  and  rainy 
seasons,  but  ev- 
erybody knows 
that  a  t  w  o  - 
wheeled  vehicle 
moves  very  easily 
and  surmounts  all 
hindrances    on    a 

Ancient    S  c  yt  ii  f- \r  ag  on  — From    a   Rare   Print.  bad    O'round      and 

is  fitted  for  turning  quicker  in  any  direction  than  a  four-wheeled  one. 
The  old  authors  treating  on  this  subject  affirm  that  scythe-wagons 
required  level  territories  to  be  used  to  advantage ;  for  between  out- 
standing roots,  bushes,  woods,  and  rocks,  the  scji;hes  attached  would 
soon  have  been  demolished."  ^ 

Another  writer  thus  comes  to  the  rescue,  and  tells  us  that  "the 
difficulty  which  Scheffer,  Crevier,  and  Drakenborch  apparently  had  in 
interpreting  this  passage  with  the  reading  (^decern  cuhita)  seems  to  me  to 
have  arisen  principally  from  their  misinterpretation  of  the  word  cuspis, 
which  in  the  classics  is  nowhere  used  as  the  edge  of  a  cutting,  Ijut  the 
point  of  a  piercing  instrument :  'Difert  a  mucrone,  quce  est  acies  gladil.* 


Ginzrot's  Wagen  unci  Fahrwerke. 


INEFFICIENCY  OF  SCYTHE-CIIAEIOTS.  107 

(Facciolati.)  That  the  cuspides  here  spoken  of  must  have  been  pier- 
cing, not  cutting  instruments,  is  likewise  proved  from  the  meaning  of 
tlie  word  transjigerent,  which  is  never  used  in  reference  to  a  cutting 
instrument.  Tal<:ing  it  for  granted,  then,  that  the  ^  cuspidibus  decern 
cubita '  were  spears  ten  feet  long,  fastened  to  the  pole  and  extended 
from  the  yoke,  I  can  easily  understand  how  they,  being  so  long,  were 
likely  to  clear  the  way  far  in  front  of  the  horses,  while  the  " f aloes''  on 
either  side  were  intended  to  cut  down  those  who  escaped  the  '  cuspi- 
des^ ;  and  this  being  the  case,  I  see  no  necessity  for  SchefFer's  reading 
^cubito,''  which  Crevier  also  seems  to  favor,  and  Drakenborch's  "duo' 
for  "decern,"  both  of  which  seem  to  have  been  adopted  owing  to  the 
seeming  improbability  of  cutting-weapons  so  long  and  proportionably 
heavy  being  attached  to  the  poles  of  chariots."  ^ 

Leaving  this  discussion  for  the  present,  we  proceed  to  give  examples 
in  which  these  scythe-chariots  figure  as  instruments  of  warfare,  the 
result  of  which  will  throw  some  light  upon  the  subject  as  to  their 
efficiency. 

In  the  battle  between  Alexander  and  Darius  at  Arbela,  the  latter 
had  about  fifty  chariots  armed  with  scj'thes  attached  to  the  army  of  the 
Arachosians,  besides  which  Phradates  led  a  powerful  body  of  Caspians 
supported  by  fifty  more,  and  a  savage  horde  bringing  an  additional 
fifty,  with  levies  of  Armenians,  Cadusians,  Cappadocians,  Syrians,  and 
Medes  with  still  another  fifty. ^ 

"At  Absares,  in  India,  Porus  sent  forward  his  brother  Hages  against 
Alexander  with  one  hundred  war-chariots  and  three  thousand  cavalry. 
Porus's  chief  strength  lay  in  chariots;  each  carried  six  men, — two 
targeteers,  two  archers  disposed  on  each  side,  and  the  remaining  two 
were  drivers,  not  indeed  unarmed,  for  in  close  engagements,  laying 
aside  the  reins,  they  showered  javelins  on  the  enemy.  On  this  day, 
however,  these  machines  were  of  small  avail,  for  an  unusually  heavy 
rain,  as  already  narrated,  having  fallen,^  made  the  ground  perfidiously 
soft  and  unfit  for  riding,  and  the  ponderous  and  almost  immovable 


'  Note  to  Bohu's  edition  of  Livy,  B.  XXXVII,  ch.  41. 

*  See  Quintus  Curtius,  B.  IV,  ch.  9.  The  battle  of  Arbela,  between  Alexander  and 
Darius,  was  fought  A.  C.  320,  A.  M.  3074.  We  have  seen,  on  page  99,  that  chariots 
captured  from  the  nations  named  in  this  paragraph,  ))y  the  Persians,  were  altered  by 
Cyrus  into  scythe-chariots  some  years  previous  to  Alexander's  expedition  into  India. 

•*  Quintus  Curtius,  B.  VIII,  ch.  14. 


108  PEBSIAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

chariots  were  arrested  by  the  sloughs  and  torrent-gullies.  Alexander, 
on  the  contrary,  rushed  fiercely  to  the  charge  with  an  active  and  light- 
armed  force.  The  Scythse  and  the  Dahse  began  the  onset ;  then  Alex- 
ander detached  Perdicas  with  a  body  of  horse  against  the  enemy's  right 
wino-.  .  .  .  The  charioteers,  deeming  their  vehicles  to  be  the  last 
resource  of  their  associates,  drove  with  loose  reins  into  the  midst  of 
the  field  and  equally  damaged  both  parties  ;  for  at  first  the  Macedonian 
infantry  were  trampled  down  by  their  inroad,  then  the  chariots  whirled 
upon  slimy  and  unequal  places  and  shook  the  drivers  from  their  seats ; 
other  cars  the  affrighted  horses  precipitated  into  the  ravines  and  pools, 
and  even  into  the  river ;  a  few,  having  been  conducted  as  far  as  the 
enemy,  reached  Porus,  who  was  vigorously  stimulating  the  battle. 

"  The  Indian  leader,  perceiving  his  chariots  dispersed  over  the  field, 
flounderino-  without  directors,  distributed  the  elephants  to  his  tired 
friends.  I3ehind  them  he  had  stationed  his  infimtry  and  archers,  these 
carried  drivers,  whose  accent  served  the  Indians  instead  of  the  trum- 
pet's call ;  nor  were  the  elephants  disturbed  by  the  noise ;  their  ears 
were  docile  to  the  known  sound."  ^ 

About  three  years  after  this,  at  the  river  Hydraotes,  the  barbarians 
met  him  (Alexander)  with  war-chariots  fastened  together ;  some  had 
darts,  some  had  pikes,  some  battle-axes ;  they  were  seen  actively  leap- 
ino-  from  car  to  car  to  succor  such  combatants  as  were  severely  pressed. 
At  first  this  new  way  of  fighting  startled  the  Macedonians,  as  they 
were  wounded  before  they  could  come  into  close  action.  At  length, 
despising  so  irregular  an  armament,  having  surrounded  the  chariots, 
they  l)egan  to  spear  their  fierce  adversaries.  That  these  machines 
might  beset  singly,  the  king  ordered  the  ligaments  by  which  they  were 
connected  to  be  cut.  Eight  thousand  Indians  having  thus  fallen,  the 
rest  sought  refuge  in  the  town.^  Seven  years  previous  to  this,  when 
Alexander  marched  against  the  Thracians,  that  people  obstructed  his 
progress  with  war-chariots  on  a  mountain,  planted  so  as  to  resemble 

>  See  Quintus  Curtius,  B.  VIII,  ch.  15  (A.  C.  327,  A.  M.  3677).  Where,  iu  the  battle 
with  Porus,  Curtius  represents  the  Indian  archers  to  have  been  incommoded  by  tlie 
slippery  state  of  the  ground,  Rooke  marks  it  among  his  important  objections,  because 
Arrian  (B.  V,  ch.  15)  describes  the  place  where  the  Indian  army  was  drawn  up  as  firm 
and  sandy ;  but  it  is  evident  from  the  beginning  of  that  chapter  in  Arrian  that  the  field 
was  interrupted  and  suri'ounded  with  slimy  tracts.  —  Vindication  of  Curtius,  Preface  to 
the  edition  published  in  London,  1809,  by  Samuel  Baggter,  sect,  viii,  p.  32. 

2  Quintus  Curtius,  B.  IX,  ch.  1. 


SCYTHE-CHAEIOTS   OF  ANTIOCHUS.  109 

an  iiitrcnchmcnt,  intending  to  roll  them  down  on  their  assailants. 
Alexander,  understanding  their  plans,  gave  orders  to  his  soldiers  to 
open  to  the  right  and  left  on  their  approach  and  let  them  pass  without 
mischief,  ordering  such  Macedonians  as  were  not  quick  enough  to  do 
so  to  fall  flat  down,  covering  themselves  with  their  bucklers,  as  its 
impenetrable  shell  covers  the  tortoise. ^ 

When  C?esar  was  attacked  by  King  Pharnaces,  near  the  town  of 
Ziela,  the  king,  in  order  to  frighten  the  Romans,  had  a  line  of  scythe- 
chariots  brought  to  the  front,  but  the  panic-stricken  soldiers,  the 
veterans  especially,  soon  recovered  themselves,  and  made  an  awful 
slaughter  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  gaining  a  victory  for  Cassar.  It 
was  in  reference  to  this  battle,  because  it  was  gained  speedily  with 
ease,  that  Csesar,  on  his  triumphal  entrance  into  Rome  afterwards,  had 
carried  in  the  procession  before  him  that  famous  inscription,  "  Veni, 
vidi,  vici"  (I  came,  saw,  conquered).  These  scythe-chariots  used  to 
be  drawn  up  at  the  beginning  of  a  battle  at  some  distance  in  front  of 
the  enemy.  It  was  too  dangerous  to  let  them  advance  through  the 
ranks  of  the  foot-soldiers,  as  it  often  happened  that  the  horses  got 
frightened,  and,  running  back,  caused  a  great  massacre  in  their  own 
ranks  instead  of  those  of  the  foe. 

The  currus  falcata  of  Antiochus,  described  by  Livy,  appear  to  have 
l)een  different  from  those  invented  by  Cyrus.  lie  tolls  us  that  "  round 
the  pole  were  shaip-pointed  spears  which  extended  from  the  yoke 
about  ten  cuhita  [about  fifteen  feet]  ;  with  these  they  pierced  every- 
thing in  their  way.  On  the  end  of  the  yoke  of  the  two  outside  horses 
were  two  scythes,  one  being  placed  horizontally,  the  other  towards  the 
ground.  The  first  cut  everjrthing  from  the  sides,  the  others  catching 
those  prostrate  on  the  ground  or  trying  to  crawl  under.  There  were 
also  on  both  ends  of  the  axle  scythes  going  out  in  dificrent  directions. 
The  long  spears  (cuspides)  were  not  on  the  yoke,  as  some  say,  for 
how  could  it  have  been  possible  that  such  spears  could  stand  firmly 
straight  forward  and  pierce  enemies?  Such  were  attached  to  the 
tongue,  the  end  of  which  did  not  reach  out  one  foot  over  the  breast 
of  the  horses,  as  in  our  wagons,  but  just  terminated  before  the  yoke  ; 
it  follows  that  Livy  only  intended  to  say  that  the  part  of  the  spears 


'  See  Arriau,  B.  I,  p.  2  et  seq.,  and  the  Supplement  to  the  London  edition  of  Quintus 
Curtius. 


110  PEUSIAN  WORLD   OW  WHEELS. 

running  out  from  the  end  of  the  pole  was  ten  '  cubita '  long,  measured 
from  the  yoke.i 

"  Ginzrot  observes  that  the  fanales  or  side-horses  in  the  olden  times 
were  mounted  with  small  yokes,  and  on  these  were  fastened  the  hold- 
ers, the  surcingles,  and  the  poitrals.  In  this  way  it  was  possible  to 
attach  to  a  quadriga  scythes  at  a  small  yoke.  But  to  have  scythes 
reaching  from  the  middle  yoke  over  the  backs  of  the  side-horses  would 
not  have  been  advisable,  but  dangerous  for  the  side-horses.  This 
mode  could  only  have  been  applied  to  bigas  [two-wheeled  vehicles] 
where  there  were  no  side-horses."  2 

Lampridius  informs  us  that  Alexander  Severus,  in  a  speech  before 
the  Eoman  Senate,  set  forth  that,  having  conquered  the  Persians  with 
seven  hundred  elephants  and  killed  two  hundred  of  these,  he  adds : 
"  We  destroyed  two  hundred  scythe-chariots  of  the  one  thousand  taken. 
I  did  not  want  them,  as  they  can  be  easily  imitated  everywhere."  ^ 
Artaxerxes,  who  renewed  the  fight  with  Alexander  Severus,  disposed 
in  order  of  battle  one  thousand  scythe-quadrigas,  besides  seven  hun- 
dred war-elephants,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  mounted  soldiers. 

The  Persians  had  a  vehicle  they  called  a  harmamaxa,  similar  to  the 
carpentum  of  the  Romans.  These  were  more  popular  with  women  and 
effeminate  youths  than  with  men.  Cyrus  was  very  anxious  to  increase 
his  cavalry,  and  the  example  of  the  great  went  to  encourage  the  rich 
youths  to  devote  themselves  to  this  exercise  ;  for  as  they  were  at  that 
time  in  the  habit  of  riding  in  chariots,  they  made  very  poor  horsemen 
and  indolent  Avarriors.  For  this  reason  Agesilaus  sold  the  Persian 
prisoners  naked,  they  never  having  exposed  any  part  of  their  bodies, 
having  always  ridden  in  chariots,  so  that  they  looked  so  white  and 
delicate  that  his  soldiers,  seeing  them,  thought  that  they  had  to  fight 
with  women.  This  carriage,  supplied  with  cushions,  was  often  used 
as  a  bed  by  the  king  on  a  march.  The  ordinary  war-chariot  was  called 
a  harma,  which,  being  only  fitted  to  sit  on  and  stand  in,  was  some- 
times temporarily  abandoned  for  the  more  comfortable  and  aristocratic 


•  Livy,  B.  XXXVII,  ch.  41. 

*  New  York  Coach-maker's  3Iac/azine,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  35. 

3  Alexander  Severus  was  the  twenty-first  emperor  of  Eome,  for  ten  years,  from 
A.  D.  222  to  232.  Lamprid.,  in  Vit.  Alexandra  Severi.  He  received  his  name  from  the 
fact  that  he  was  born  at  Arcaena,  in  a  temple  dedicated  to  Alexander  Magnus,  king 
of  Macodon. 


HAEMAMAXA    OF  THE  PEBSIANS. 


Ill 


harmamaxa,  as  did  Xerxes  on  his  march  against  SardisJ  This  harma- 
maxa  appears  to  have  on  some  occasions  answered  the  purposes  of  a 
state  chariot,  in  comparison  with  which  harma,  the  common  peasant 
vehicle,  was  a  very  insignificant  affair. 

From  our  drawing  the  reader  will  get  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  Persian 
carpentum  or  harmamaxa.     This  vehicle  is  referred  to  in  old  authors. 


Persian  Harmamaxa 


Maximus  Tyrius  (Serm.  34)  says,  "Thou  art  astonished  at  the  Median 
tiara,  the  barbarous  board,  and  the  Persian  harmamaxa"  ;  and  Curtius 
has  retained  the  word  in  Latin  by  saying,  "  Then  followed  fifteen  so- 
called  harmaxens."  The  body  of  this  vehicle  was  mounted  on  four 
wheels  and  had  a  closed  box  all  around,  and  was  long  enough  to  lie 
down  in ;  the  side-rail  of  which  on  each  side  was  cut  out  rounding  in 
the  middle,  to  facilitate  ingress  or  egress  when  required,  the  outside 
hangings  being  richly  decorated,  and  the  inside  covered  with  soft 
cushions  and  other  upholstery.  The  Persian  ladies  are  said  to  have 
reclined  in  them  as  on  a  bed,  or  sat  on  the  cushions  according  to  the 
Oriental  custom.  According  to  Herodotus,  the  women  rode  in  came- 
rata,  or  arched  vehicles.  Xenophon  says  on  one  occasion  ("Cyropse- 
dia,"  B.  Ill),  "Cyrus  permitted  even  the  women,  who  were  pres- 
ent in  their  harmamaxa,  to  listen."  The  Persians  and  other  Orientals 
seem  to  have  been  very  solicitous  about  their  wives,  from  jealousy 
as  well  as  affection.  King  Croesus  permitted  his  wives  that  accompa- 
nied him  on  his  warlike  expeditions  to  travel  only  by  night,  in  order 

»  Herodotus,  B.  VII,  v.  41. 


112  PERSIAN   WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 

that  they  might  not  suffer  too  much  in  then'  closed  harmamaxa  from 
the  heat  of  the  day.  Phitarch  tells  us  that  "  the  Persians  surrounded 
their  wives  carefully  with  a  guard,  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  seen 
by  any  of  the  servants,  and  when  they  travel  they  ride  in  closed 
harmamaxens."  Diodorus  Siculus  says,  "  It  was  customary  among  the 
Persians  for  those  who  had  to  escort  a  mistress  of  the  king  from  one 
place  to  another  to  do  it  in  a  closed  carriage,  so  that  no  one  who  met 
them  might  exhibit  curiosity  in  regard  to  its  occupants,  or  might  ask 
to  see  her."  By  this  method  Lysithides  succeeded  in  his  schemes,  in 
bringing  Themistocles  to  Xerxes  on  one  occasion.  Xenophon  observes 
in  one  passage  that  "  the  Asiatics  are  accustomed  to  take  their  concu- 
bines and  most  valuable  property  with  them  when  they  go  to  war,  for 
they  believe  they  fight  with  more  courage  if  they  have  to  defend  what 
is  most  dear  to  them." 

That  the  Persian  ladies  often  went  to  the  wars  in  the  most  magnifi- 
cent chariots  is  evident  from  the  words  of  Herodotus  (B.  VII,  ch.  83). 
After  the  Greeks  had  conquered  the  Persians  at  Platea,  a  woman  fled 
and  surrendered  to  them.  It  was  the  concubine  of  Pharandates,  a  Per- 
sian prince.  She  sat  in  a  harmamaxa  quite  brilliant  with  gold,  and 
her  maid-servants  were  dressed  in  the  most  gorgeous  attire.^  These 
were  sometimes  drawn  by  oxen  as  well  as  horses,  like  the  carpenta. 
Demosthenes  in  "Mid,"  says,  "Lysistrata,  wife  of  one  of  the  richest 
citizens  of  Athens,  always  drove  four  white  Scythian  horses  to  her 
harmamaxa  "  ;  and  Heliodorus  describes  the  procession  of  Diana  with 
the  Thessalonians,  and  says  of  their  priestess  Chariclea,  "She  rode  in 
a  harmamaxa  drawn  by  a  yoke  of  white  oxen."  2  It  is  proved  from  a  pas- 
sage in  Xenophon  that  both  men  and  women  sometimes  rode  in  these 
harmamaxa.  He  says,  "  After  the  Armenian  princes  were  reconciled 
with  Cyrus,  and  had  embraced  him,  they  stepped  with  their  wives  into 
the  harmamaxen."  ^ 

Diodorus  Siculus  calls  the  state  funeral  carriage,  built  by  Hierony- 
mus  for  carrying  the  body  of  Alexander  from  Babylon,  where  he  died, 

'  Herodotus,  B.  IX,  ch.  76.  =*  Heliodorus,  Ethiop.,  B.  III. 

^  Xenophon's  Institution  of  Cyrus,  B.  III.  From  the  extracts  we  have  givcu  in  the 
text  it  would  appear  that  ancient  writers  did  not  take  much  care  in  selecting  proper 
names  for  the  vehicles  they  intended  to  represent,  or  else  the  word  "harmamaxa"  de- 
scribed a  certain  vehicle  in  general  use  among  different  nations.  Harmamaxa  probably 
was  the  common  name  for  four-wheeled,  as  the  word  "chariot"  was  for  those  on  two 
wheels. 


BESGBIPTION  OF  ALEXANDEB'S  FUNERAL   CAB.        113 

to  the  temple  of  Amiiii  in  Alexandria,  Eg;yi3t,  Avhere  it  was  deposited, 
a  liarmamaxa;  and  Athenasus  tells  us  that  Hieronymus  "won  great 
admiration  by  the  manner  in  which  he  built  the  harmamaxa  in  which 
Alexander's  corpse  was  carried  away."  ^ 

The  body  of  this  car,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  engraving,  rested  on 
two  axle-trees,  on  the  journals  of  which  revolved  four  richly  carved 
wheels,  the  spokes  and  felloes  of  which  were  gilded  and  liound  by 
tires.  On  the  ends  of 
each  axle,  covering  the 
linchpins,  was  a  cap  in 
the  form  of  a  lion's  head, 
holding  in  the  mouth  an 
arrow.  The  peristyles, 
or  columns,  were  gold, 
with  Ionic  capitals,  on 
which  rested  an  arched 
roof  of  gold,  wrought 
and  bound  together  with 
festoons  of  scales,  set 
with  precious  stones. 
Outside  the  arch,  on  the 
edge,  were  fringes  of 
wrought  gold  in  the  form 
of  a  net,  from  which 
were  suspended  large 
bells,  which,  wlien  the  car  was  in  motion,  could  be  heard  at  a  consid- 
erable distance.  On  each  corner  of  this  arch  stood  figures  of  Victory 
holding  trophies  in  their  hands.  A  golden  acanthus  was  trailed  around 
each  pillar  to  the  capital ;  upon  the  center  of  the  arch,  on  the  outside, 
was  thrown  a  purple  tapestry,  on  which  was  laid  an  olive  wreath  of 
gold,  which,  reflecting  in  the  sun,  was  seen  at  a  great  distance.  At 
the  entrance  to  this  carriage  stood  two  golden  lions,  as  if  to  guard  the 
passage.  Under  the  arch,  nearly  the  length  of  the  floor,  was  placed  a 
four-cornered  golden  throne,  ornamented  with  chiseled  bucks'  heads, 
from  which  hung  wide  golden  rings,  to  which  Avi-eaths,  splendid  in 


IiEXANDER'a    FTJNERAI    CAR. 


'  A  very  fine  engraving  of  this  vehicle  will  be  found  on  Plate  I  of  Monuments 
Oiivrages  Antiques  BestituSs,  by  M.  Quatremere  De  Quiucy,  Paris,  1829. 


114 


PEBSIAN   WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


colors,  were  attached.  In  the  peristyle  was  a  good  net  of  a  fringe's 
thickness,  furnished  with  four  tablets  represented  in  bass-reliefs,  and 
duplicated  on  the  outside.  On  the  first,  Alexander  was  seen  with  a 
scepter  in  his  hand  and  sitting  on  his  armor ;  on  the  other,  the  Persian 
mehphosces  (apple-carriers,  so  called  because  they  carried  large  golden 
buttons  on  their  lances),  and  behind  those  armor-bearers.  On  the 
second  tablet  elephants  were  represented   carrymg  the   Macedonian 

body-guard,  with  In- 
dian drivers.  On  the 
third  were  squadrons 
of  horse  in  evolution. 
On  the  fourth,  a  fleet 
getting  ready  for  ac- 
tion. 

On  the  throne  was 
placed  the  golden  cof- 
fin, half  filled  with  aro- 
matic spices  to  per- 
fume the  body,  of  won- 
derful workmanship, 
covered  with  a  lid  of 
gold  and  a  pall  of  pur- 
ple color  worked  in 
gold,  on  which  was 
laid  the  armor  of  the 
dead.  The  remainder  of  the  description  given  by  the  ancient  historian 
refers  chiefly  to  the  manner  in  which  the  sixty-four  mules  which  drew 
the  ponderous  car  were  yoked  to  it,  and  is  here  omitted,  having  very 
little  interest  for  the  general  reader.  There  is  one  thing  worthy  of 
notice  in  connection  with  this  subject,  and  that  is,  in  order  to  prevent 
any  violent  movement  in  turning,  or  passing  over  uneven  ground,  the 
builder  put  a  perch-bolt  in  the  "under-carriage,"  that  the  body  might 
under  all  circumstances  preserve  a  proper  position  and  not  upset. 

Hieronymus,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  Persian,  and  to  have  copied 
his  chief  points  of  construction  from  the  already  popular  harmamaxen 
of  the  country,  established  an  envious  fame  in  so  doing,  great  numbers 
of  people  from  long  distances  coming  to  see  it  in  connection  with  tliis 
gorgeous  funeral  procession. 


Interior   View   of   Alexander's   Funer 


MODETtN  PERSIAN  FARMER'S  CART. 


115 


The  Persians  of  the  present  time  are  far  behind  some  crther  nations. 
The  farmer's  cart,  as  used  at  Khosrovah,  is  far  from  being  the  perfection 
of  art.     The  wheels  are  of  the  most  primitive  kind  ;  and  then,  indeed, 


Persian   Farmer's   Cart. 


who  would  think  of  hitching  buffaloes  to  a  cart  in  this  age  of  the  world  ? 
The  rude  vehicle  is  pretty  well  loaded  with  passengers  and  market- 
baskets,  a  musician  accompanying  it  to  enliven  the  party  with  tunes 
played  from  a  rustic  pipe.     Such  is  life  in  Persia. 


116 


GRECIAN  WOELD   ON  WHEELS. 

63  363 


CHAPTEE    lY. 


In  the 
mortal 
brass  ;  i 
thonius 
shaped 


GRECIAN    RACING    AND    OTHER    CHARIOTS. ETRUSCAN    BIG  AS. 

"  High  o'er  the  well-compacted  chariots  hung 
The  charioteers  ;  the  rapid  horses  loosed 
At  their  full  stretch  and  shook  the  floating  reins. 
Eebounding  from  the  ground,  with  many  a  shock 
Flew  clattering  the  firm  cars,  and  creaked  aloud 
The  naves  of  the  round  wheels." 

Hesiod's  Shield  of  Hercules. 


previous  chapter  we  have  attrib- 
uted the  invention  of 
chariots  to  the  Egyp- 
tians, as  Ave  think  on 
sufficient  evidence,  al- 
though this  is  a  matter 
of  dispute  among  Gre- 
cian and  Roman  writers. 
Hymn  to  Venus,  Homer  distinctly  says  that  Mars  first  taught 
workmen  to  make  wagons  and  various  kinds  of  chariots  in 
whilst  the  invention  of  the  use  of  chariots  is  ascribed  to  Erich- 
,  the  fourth  king  of  the  Athenians,  who,  to  hide  his  dragon- 
foot,  rode  in  one.     Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  Greeks^  learned 


'  See  Bohn's  edition  of  Homer's  Odyssey,  p.  387. 

^  Greece  is  supposed  to  have  been  settled  by  the  descendants  of  Javan,  otherwise 
called  Ion,  the  son  of  Japhet,  and  grandson  of  Noah ;  for  in  Hebrew,  as  linguists  teach 
us,  the  same  letters,  differently  pointed,  form  these  two  different  names.  (Dan.,  ch.  viii, 
v.  21.)  Among  the  Hebrews,  Chaldeans,  and  Assyrians,  the  Grecians  were  known 
only  as  lonians.  —  Grecian  history  covers  the  space  of  two  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty-four  years,  commonly  divided  into  four  periods,  the  first  beginning  Avith  the  petty 
kingdom  of  Sicyon,  A.  M.  1820,  and  ending  with  the  siege  of  Troy,  circa  A.  M.  2820, 
previous  to  which  time  the  Grecians  do  not  appear  to  have  placed  much  confidence  in 
chariots  as  instruments  of  Avarfare.  The  second  period  begins  with  the  taking  of  Troy, 
A.  M.  2820,  and  ends  with  A.  M.  3483.  At  this  date  its  history  becomes  intermixed 
with  the  Persian,  in  the  reign  of  Darius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes.     The  third  period 


FBEQUENCY  OF   WHEEL-RUTIS  IN  GREECE.  117 

to  harness  four  horses  to  chariots  abreast  from  the  Libyans. ^  Virgil 
informs  us  that  Erichthonius  was  the  first  who  ventured  to  hitch  four 
horses  to  a  chariot  for  the  race-course, ^  whilst  the  Arcadians,  according 
to  Cicero,  concede  the  invention  of  wheeled  vehicles  to  Minerva. ^ 
Pliny,  with  greater  probability,  says  the  Phrygians  invented  the  put- 
ting of  two  horses  to  a  chariot,  but  likewise  agrees  with  Virgil  in 
ascribing  the  honor  of  hitching  four  to  Erichthonius.  We  learn  from 
the  pages  of  Herodotus  that  long  before  the  Athenian  ruler  was  born, 
the  Egyptians,  in  performance  of  certain  ceremonies  in  honor  of  Mars 
at  Papremis,  carried  his  image  in  procession,  seated  in  a  miniature 
temple,  mounted  upon  a  four-wheeled  vehicle,  thus  contradicting  the 
speculations  of  the  latei  historians. ^  Notwithstanding,  it  must  be  con- 
ceded that  in  beauty  of  outline  and  nicety  of  finish  the  Grecian  archi- 
tects were  far  in  advance  of  their  contemporaries  in  chariot-building 
This  will  appear  as  we  proceed  with  our  history. 

The  Grecian  carriage  nomenclature,  although  less  extensive  than  the 
Eoman,  was  not  an  insignificant  one  by  any  means.  The  general 
employment  of  vehicles  is  very  evident.  Mure  observes  "  that  modern 
travelers  have  long  been  in  the  habit  of  remarking  the  frequent  occur- 
rence of  wheel-ruts  in  every  part  of  Greece,  often  in  the  remotest  and 
least  frequented  mountain-passes,  where  a  horse  or  mule  can  now  with 
difficulty  find  a  footing.  The  term  *  rut '  must  not  here  be  understood 
in  the  sense  of  a  hole  or  inequality  worn  by  long  use  and  neglect  in  a 
level  road,  but  of  a  groove  or  channel  purposely  scooped  out  at  dis- 
tances adapted  to  the  ordinary  span  of  a  carriage,  for  the  purpose  of 

extends  from  A.  M.  3483  to  the  death  of  Alexander,  A.  M.  36-tl.  This  was  the  most 
prosperous  period  of  its  duration,  and  the  point  when  art  had  reached  its  highest  per- 
fection. The  fourtli  commences  witli  the  death  of  Alexander,  A.  M.  3G41,  ending  A.  M. 
3974,  when  Greece  became  subject  to  Roman  power.  Supposing  that  art  reached  its 
climax  among  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  and  Grecians  at  the  periods  we  have  stated, 
we  may  flx  the  chronology  of  the  carriages  as  follows :  the  Assyrian,  seven  hundred 
and  seventy-four  years  later  than  the  Egyptian;  and  the  Grecian,  sixty-three  years 
later  than  the  Assyrian. 

'  Herodotus,  B.  IV,  ch.  189. 

*  The  poets  especially,  in  ancient  times,  taking  advantage  of  the  license  accorded 
them,  have  done  more  in  falsifying  history  than  any  other  class  of  writers.  In  this 
case  the  honor  assigned  Erichthonius  rests  on  a  very  sandy  foundation. 

^  "Quorta  Minerva,  Jove  nota  Coryphe,  oceana  fllia,  quam  Arcades  Coriam  nomi- 
nant  et  quadrigarum  inventricam  fecerunt."  —  Ciceko,  De  Nat.  Deorum,  B.  Ill,  v.  23. 

■*  Herodotus,  B.  II,  ch.  63. 


118 


GBEGIAN   WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


stetidyino-  and  directing  the  course  of  the  wheels  and  lightening  the 
weio-ht  of  the  draft  on  rocky  or  precipitous  ground,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  sockets  of  our  railroads."  ^ 

On  ancient  coins  and  vases  2  are  many  designs  of  Grecian  chariots, 
commemorative  of  victories  in  the  races,  or  in  memory  of  the  nuptials 
of  persons  noted  for  their  deeds,  as  in  the  instance  of  Peleus  and  The- 
tis. The  antyx  or  frame-work  of  a  chariot  was  usually  of  wood,  and 
sustained  the  other  parts  of  the  body,  which  were  sometimes  of  osier, 
but  most  commonly  of  leather  or  raw  hide.^  The  engraving  shows  the 
frame-work  of  a  diphron''  or  war-chariot,  which,  with  the  exception  of 
the  top  ring,  were  the  same  in  bigas  and  the  quadrigas  used  on  the 

race-course,  in  triumphal  and  for 
pleasure  driving.  The  wooden  por- 
tions of  the  bodies  were  made  very 
strong,  as,  being  hung  upon  the  axle- 
tree  without  any  contrivance  for  break- 
ing the  force,  they  were  often  sub- 
jected to  severe  joltings,  especially 
when  they  carried  more  than  one  pas- 
senger. All  the  joints  were  put  to- 
gether very  nicely,  and  secured  with 

\  ':— .        Li glue    made    from    hide-clippings     or 

isinglass,  which,  according  to  Celsus, 
was  called  ichti/colloi.  The  antugen,  or  metallic  circle  which  formed 
the  top  finish  of  this  description  of  chariot,  was  generally  brass,  ])ut 
sometimes  wood,  very  light  and  tasteful.  Instead  of  hide  or  osier  as 
mentioned  above,  sometimes  the  side  panels  were  deal  and  painted. 
The  sides  of  war-chariots  were  much  deeper  than  those  used  in  the 
circus,  the  high  sides  serving  as  a  protection  to  the  warrior  against  the 
darts  of  the  enemy.     When  these  sides  were  low  and  open,  a  better 


'  Mure's  Travels  in  Greece.  The  late  researches  of  Dr.  Schliemau  among  the  ruins 
of  Mycenae  show  that  the  ruts  of  chariot- wheels  are  so  deep  from  constant  friction  that 
they  form  a  striking  object  in  his  discoveries. 

^  See  Gerhard's  Griesliche  Vasenbilder,  B  \o\s.,  Berlin,  18-10;  Overbeck's  Geschichte 
Plastic,  Vol.  I,  Leipsic,  1857 ;  and  Wiudust,  On  the  Portland  Vase. 

^  See  Pollux,  B.  I,  ch.  10,  seq.  142. 

■*  In  the  Grecian  tongue,  war-chariots  were  called  diphros  (two-seated),  and  some- 
times, too,  synoris  (or  double  team).     These  were  of  various  kinds. 


GliEGIAN   CHAlilOTS  FULLY  DESCRIBED. 


119 


view  of  the  line  dresses  unci  l)eautiful  figures  of  the  Grecian  ladies  was 
obtained  than  when  otherwise  constructed. 

In  the  larger  portions  of  chariots  the  raves  were  curvated,  formino-  a 
sort  of  projecting  ring  on  each  side  at  the  rear,  the  object  of  which  was 
to  aid  the  passenger  in  mounting  or  dismounting.  In  front  was  a 
raised    rail,   usually  lined,  ___ 

as  a  protection  against  ac- 
cident under  fast  driving, 
or  to  prevent  being  thrown 
out  while  turning  the  metce, 
or  boundary  in  the  race. 
This  likewise  served  as  a 
fastening  for  the  reins  when 
the  driver  left  the  car,  or 
wished  to  relieve  himself 
from  holding  them. 

Plato  describes  a  chariot 
as  consisting  only  of  wheels, 
axle-tree,  body,  and  pole, 
which  in  fact  comprehends 
about  all  there  is  of  it. 
These  axle-trees  were  usually  made  of  lieech-wood,  but  occasionally 
of  iron,  l^eing  secured  to  the  bottom  of  the  body  by  screws  and  "  bran- 
drele"  or  eyelets.  When  iron  axles  were  used,  these  eyelet-lx)lts,  in 
case  of  breakage,  held  the  arms,  and  saved  the  vehicle  from  falling  to 
the  ground,  and  perhaps  killing  the  charioteer.  That  the  rims  of 
chariot-wheels  were  sometimes  made  of  poplar-wood  is  indicated  by  a 
passage  in  the  Iliad  which  reads  thus :  "  He  [Simoisius]  fell  on  the 
ground  in  the  dust,  like  a  poplar  which  has  sprung  up  in  the  moist 
grass-land  of  an  extensive  marsh,  whose  branches  grow  smooth  even 
to  the  very  top,  which  the  chariot-maker  lops  with  the  shining  steel, 
that  he  may  bend  [it  as]  a  felloe  for  a  beauteous  chariot."  ^ 

The  more  common  Avay  with  the  Grecians  was  to  harness  two  horses 
abreast.  These,  according  to  Homer,  were  "  fed  on  lotus," ^  "  lake-fed 
parsley, "a  "  white  barley  " ^  and  "oats"^  from  "ambrosial  mangers, "c 


Grecian   Char 


Homer's  Iliad,  Bohu's  Edition,  B.  IV,  p.  77. 
Ibid.,  B.  VIII,  p.  150. 


Ibid.,  B.  II,  p. 
Ibid.,  p.  150. 


Ibid.,  p.  45. 
Ibid.,  p.  147. 


120 


GBECIAN   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


to  which  his  "fair-maiied"  steeds  were  bound.  Tlie  Grecians  appear 
to  have  given  names  to  favorite  horses.  Those  of  Achilles  Avere 
respectively  Kanthus,  Babius,  and  Pedasus. 

It  is  noticeable  that  in  all  Grecian  chariots  very  few  trappings  are 
shown.  The  vehicle  is  therefore  supposed  to  have  been  drawn  from 
the  yoke  alone.  This  yoke  was  placed  horizontally  on  the  necks  of 
the  animals,  near  the  extremity  of  the  pole,  supported  l)y  the  inner 
horses,  thus  allowing  them  larger  freedom;  the  two  flank  horses  in 
quadrigas  being  more  for  show  than  anything  else,  although  fastened 
to  the  ends  of  the  yoke  by  straps  secured  to  the  collars.  A  girth  is 
frequently  seen  on  the  horse,  preventing  the  collar  from  turning.  The 
heads  of  all  were  kept  together  by  coupling  reins. 

Pausanius  informs  us  that  the  temples  and  other  public  edifices  of 
Greece  were  decorated  with  trophies,  some  of  which  were  bronze. 

He  particu- 
larly refers 
to  bigas  and 
quadrigas  — 
tw^enty-four 
in  number — 
filled  with 
one  or  more 
human  fig- 
ures, accom- 
panied by 
couriers  and 
,==-  men  on  foot. 

These    were 
consecrated 

to  the  gods  with  other  spoils,  out  of  gratitude  for  success  in  war.  A 
chariot  of  this  description  is  shown  in  the  engraving,  in  perspective,  a 
side  view  being  seen  in  the  next  figure.  The  original  was  dug  up 
near  Rome,  and  is  now  deposited  in  the  museum  of  the  Vatican,  where 
it  may  be  seen  by  the  visitor.  This  relic,  in  white  marble,  supposed 
to  have  been  captured  from  the  Grecians  by  the  Romans,  could  scarcely 
be  excelled  by  modern  artists.  Such  is  the  splendor  of  this  model 
that  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  Homer's  poetical  shadings  merely 
describe  real  objects.     The  body  is  antique,  but  some  other  jportions, 


Grecian   Chariot,    a   Trophy  to   Rome. 


PUBLIC  EXHIBITION    OF  CHARIOTS. 


121 


including  the  wheels,  pole,  und  yoke,  have  been  restored.  The  ofl- 
side  horse,  all  except  the  head  and  legs,  is  as  originally  made,  and  the 
near  horse,  all  except  the  left  hind  foot  and  right  fore  one,  have  been 
supplied.     The  bridles  originally  were  bron2;e.     The  shape  of  the  body 


DE   View   of   Grecian   Chariot. 


is  remarkable.  The  front,  instead  of  being  rounded,  exhibits  the  form 
of  a  heart,  the  upper  rave  consisting  of  two  thick  rounded  bars.  The 
ram's  head  on  the  extremity  of  the  pole,  the  snake-headed  yoke,  and 
the  lion-faced  hub-cap,  are  each  worthy  of  special  notice. 

To  publicly  exhibit  the  chariots  of  the  vanquished  was  practiced 
among  the  ancients  from  the  earliest  times.  For  this  purpose  a  selec- 
tion was  made  from  the  finest  to  grace  the  triumphs  of  returning 
heroes  and  conquerors  as  a  mark  of  gratitude  to  them.  These  were 
afterwards  laid  up  in  the  halls  of  the  temples,  or  placed  in  the  pulilic 
squares,  or  fixed  over  the  gates  of  the  city,  or  deposited  in  the  scpul- 
chers.  Sometimes  these  trophies  were  preserved  in  the  same  state  as 
w^hen  captured;  at  other  times  they  were  newly  ornamented  and 
gilded,  and  after  being  filled  with  other  spoils  taken  from  the  enemy 


122  GBECIAX   WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 

in  battle,  horses  of  wood,  marble,  and  iron  were  attached  to  them.  In 
some  instances  the  conqueror's  coat-of-arms,  and  generally  an  inscrip- 
tion on  the  pedestal,  was  added,  showing  the  name  of  the  hero  and  the 
purpose  for  which  the  monument  was  erected. ^ 

Most  of  the  drawings  of  Grecian  design  exhibit  no  linchpins.  It 
does  not  necessarily  follow  from  this  fact  that  such  were  not  used,  for 
we  are  told  that  Myrtilus,  the  charioteer  of  O^nomaus,  allowed  his  mas- 
ter to  be  conquered  in  the  race,  his  unfaithful  servant  having  removed 
the  iron  linchpins  and  substituted  wax  ones  instead,  so  that  the  wheels 
of  the  chariot  came  off  during  the  contest. 

Of  all  the  games  celebrated  in  Greece,  none  have  excelled  or  even 
approached  in  renown  the  Olympian.  They  occupied  the  first  place  in 
the  minds  of  the  people,  having  been  instituted  by  Hercules,  the  first 
of  heroes,  in  honor  of  Jupiter,  the  first  of  gods,  and  were  celebrated 
every  fourth  year.  So  popular  were  these  games  (B.  C.  4000)  that 
they  were  utilized  in  ornamenting  the  pediments  of  public  l)uildings 
and  other  monuments  of  the  ancients.     Among  Stuart's  "Antiquities 

^  The  practice  of  setting  up  monuments  in  memory  of  remarkable  events  dates  as 
far  back  as  patriarclial  times.  Jacob  set  up  the  stone  on  which  his  head  rested  while 
dreaming  as  a  memorial  of  his  vision,  consecrating  it  by  pouring  oil  thereon  (Gen., 
ch.  xxviii,  v.  18),  and  Joshua  ordered  twelve  stones  erected  as  a  remembrancer  of  the 
passage  of  the  Israelites  over  the  Jordan.  (Josh.,  ch.  iv,  v.  3.)  But  only  in  honor  of 
God  or  with  some  pious  intention  was  it  lawful  to  set  up  monuments  among  the  He- 
brews, all  others  being  strictly  prohibited.  (Deut.,  ch.  xvi,  v.  22.)  The  heathen  adopted 
the  same  practice  in  later  times ;  for  when  a  citizen  retired  from  business,  he  dedicated 
to  the  gods  some  choice  implement,  sometimes  made  of  silver,  hanging  it  upon  the 
arches  of  the  temple.  Gladiators,  retiring  forever  from  the  arena,  consecrated  their 
armor  to  Hercules.  Gordius  devoted  his  farm-wagon  to  Jupiter,  placing  it  in  his  tem- 
ple after  having  been  offered  an  empire  for  it  while  riding  therein.  (Justin,  B.  VI,  ch.  9.) 
Charioteers  on  relinquishing  their  occupation  devoted  their  chariots,  yokes,  bridle-bits, 
and  reins  to  some  temple,  generally  that  of  Neptune.  Catullus  makes  the  mariner  say, 
"  O  my  ship,  I  consecrate  thee  to  Castor  and  Pollux !  "  (Carm.,  ch.  Ixviii,  v.  65.)  Timou 
in  Lucian  exclaims,  "Thou,  ray  dear  leather  jacket  and  pickax,  I  devote  to  Pan." 
Longus  says  of  Daphnis,  "  To  Dionysius  he  consecrated  pouch  and  fur,  to  Pan  a  flute 
and  lyre,  and  to  the  nymphs  his  shepherd's  crook."  {Daphnis  and  Chloe,  B.  VI.)  Car- 
rion, in  Aristophanes,  dedicates  his  old  overcoat  and  shoes,  which  he  wore  in  poverty, 
to  Pluto.  Lais,  a  courtesan  of  Corinth,  is  thus  immortalized  by  Julian :  — 
"Lais,  when  time  had  spoiled  her  wonted  grace, 

Abhorred  the  look  of  age  that  plowed  her  face. 

Her  glass,  sad  monitor  of  charms  decayed, 

Before  the  queen  of  lasting  bloom  she  laid. 

'  The  sweet  companion  of  my  youthful  years 

Be  thine,'  she  said.     '  No  change  thy  beauty  fears.'" 


riCTOB  Hf-   THE   GHARIOT-BAOE. 


123 


Chariot    from   the   Pediment   of   the   Paktheon. 


124  GRECIAN    WORLD    ON    WHEELls. 

of  Athens  "  there  are  three  compartments  allotted  to  the  chariots  from 
the  Partheon.^  In  the  first  are  two ;  in  the  second  another,  showing 
preparation  for  the  race ;  in  the  third,  the  crowning  of  the  snccessful 
competitor  standing  over  his  chariot,  as  shown  in  the  illustration  on 
the  preceding  page.  Although  somewhat  roughly  executed,  it  is' 
undoubtedly  a  fair  exhibition  of  the  style  of  Grecian  chariots  then 
prevalent. 

In  the  Grecian  games,  as  previously  intimated,  the  chariot-races 
were  the  most  distinguished,  and  consequently  occupied  the  attention 
of  the  most  noble  and  ambitious  minds  of  the  as^e.  Nothino-  was  com- 
parable  to  a  victory  around  the  stadium,  since  it  was  looked  upon  as 
the  perfection  of  human  glory.  A  Eoman  poet  has  pronounced  the 
successful  contestants  something  more  than  human,  —  no  longer  men, 
but  gods.^ 

This  distinsruished  honor  was  in  a  o-reat  measure  derived  from  the 
ancient  practice  of  the  Egyptians  and  Assyrians  in  fighting  from  char- 
iots, as  already  described.  Ancient  writers  inform  us  that  kings  in 
person  eagerly  contended  for  these  high  honors,  under  the  conviction 
that  the  title  of  victor  in  the  race  was  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  a 
conqueror  in  battle,  and  that  the  victor's  wreath  —  composed  of  olive, 
pine,  and  parsley  —  would  lend  additional  splendor  to  a  throne.  Pin- 
dar, in  one  of  his  finest  odes,  teaches  us  that  Gelon  and  Hiero,  kings 
of  Syracuse,  held  this  opinion,  of  which  we  find  other  examples  in 
classical  history.  Cypselus,  usurper  of  the  government  of  Corinth, 
maintained  a  stud  of  horses  expressly  for  the  chariot-races.  His  son 
Miltiades  on  one  occasion  won  a  prize,  which  served  to  place  his  family 
in  the  very  highest  respectability.  Democritus,  king  of  Lacedfemon, 
was  renowned  for  the  honor  he  had  conferred  on  his  native  city  by  a 
victory  in  one  of  these  contests  with  a  four-horse  chariot,  he  being  the 
only  individual  in  Sparta  ever  thus  successful.  Cimon,  who  had  been 
banished  from  Athens  by  Pisistratus,  during  his  exile  at  Marathon  had 
the  good  fortune  to  win  a  prize  in  another  four-horse  chariot-race,  the 
honor  of  which  he  transferred  to  his  brother  Miltiades.  Afterwards, 
in  the  next  Olympiad,  having  gained  a  second  victory  with  the  same 

1  See  Stuart's  Antiquities  of  Athens,  John  Nichols,  Looclon,  1787-1816. 
^  "  Palmaque  nob  His 
Terrarum  dominos  evehit  ad  decs."  —  Hokace,  B.  I,  Od.  I. 


VICTOBS  IN  THE   CHABIOT-BACE.  125 

mares,  he  permitted  Pisistratus  to  be  proclaimed  victor,  by  which  act 
of  generosity  he  was  allowed  to  return  home  under  certain  conditions. 
In  another  trial  he  was  a  third  time  successful  with  the  same  animals. 
Alcibiades  was  noted  for  the  great  number  of  chariots  he  kept,  and  for 
the  superior  breed  of  his  horses.  At  one  time  he  sent  seven  chariots 
to  the  Olympic  races,  —  a  thing  never  done  by  any  other  person, 
whether  king  or  in  the  private  walks  of  life.  According  to  Thucydides, 
he  bore  away  the  first,  second,  and  fourth  prizes  at  one  time,  which 
exceeded  everything  previously  performed  in  that  line  by  the  most 
ambitious.^  These  he  won  in  person.  Afterwards  he  obtained  two 
others  by  proxy.  On  one  occasion  his  passion  for  these  sports  got 
him  into  trouble.  It  seems  there  lived  at  Athens  one  Diomedes,  a 
man  of  good  character  and  the  friend  of  Alcibiades,  who  exercised  a 
strong  desire  for  winning  a  prize  in  one  of  these  races  ;  and  being  told 
that  a  chariot  belonging  to  the  city  of  Argos  was  for  sale,  he  persuaded 
his  friend,  who  was  exceedingly  popular  there,  to  buy  it  for  him. 
Alcibiades,  after  purchasing  the  chariot,  ungenerously  kept  it  for  his 
own  use,  leavjng  Diomedes  to  vent  his  wrath  in  calling  upon  gods  and 
men  to  bear  witness  of  the  injustice  done  him  in  this  transaction. 
There  appears  to  have  been  a  suit  afterwards  brought  against  the 
ancient  sportsman  by  the  disappointed  would-be  victor,  an  account  of 
which  may  be  found  in  an  oration  by  Isocrates,  wherein  a  defense  is 
made  in  the  interest  of  Alcibiades,  then  a  youth.  The  great  expense 
Alcibiades  was  at  in  sacrifices  to  Jupiter,  and  in  feasting  his  friends 
who  assisted  him  when  contesting  the  game  in  person,  is  strong  evi- 
dence that  he  felt  great  pride  and  much  joy  at  his  success.  On  the 
day  Alexander  was  born,  his  father,  the  king  of  Macedon,  obtained  the 
victory  in  a  chariot-race,  of  which  he  Avas  so  proud  that  he  afterwards 
had  the  event  recorded  by  a  representation  of  it  on  a  coin.  This  pas- 
sion for  racing  does  not  appear  to  have  been  inherited  by  his  son ;  for 
when  questioned  by  his  friends  on  a  certain  occasion  as  to  whether  he 
intended  to  enter  the  list  or  otherwise,  he  with  seeming  indifference 
merely  said,  "Yes,  if  I  have  kings  for  my  antagonists  !  "  We  frequently 
find  impressions  of  chariots  on  the  coins  of  the  ancients.  There  is  one 
from  Syracuse  in  the  British  Museum,  on  one  side  of  which  may  be 
seen  a  quadriga,  the  successful  charioteer  standing  therein  while  being 

'  Thucydides,  B.  VI,  16. 


126 


GBEGIAN    WORLD   OJST  WHEELS. 


crowned  hy  Victory. 


A  representation  of  the  usual  racing-chariot  is 
given  in  the  engraving. 

Tlie  honor  obtained  in 
these  contests  was  not 
confined  to  the  sterner 
sex,  as  appears  from  his- 
tory. Pausanius  says 
that  Cynisca,  the  sister 
of  Angesilaus,  king  of 
Sparta,  was  the  first  fe- 
male crowned  victor  in 
a  chariot-race,  to  whose 
honor  also  a  monument 
was  afterwards  erected. 
As  the  lady  herself  had 
previously  caused  a  char- 
iot of  brass,  drawn  by 
four  horses,  in  which  a 
charioteer  was  shown  in 
a  standing  posture,  to  be 
made  and  deposited  in  a 
Delphic  temple,  it  is 
probable  that  her  victory 
was  won  by  proxy,  —  a 
very  convenient  mode 
of  obtaining  renown  in 
ancient  times. 

In  these  races  the  char- 
iots were  usually  drawn 
either  by  two  or  four 
horses  abreast,  but  in 
some  instances  mules 
were  substituted.  At  a 
given  signal  all  started 
off  together  from  the  carceres^  —  a  Latin  term  for  the  place  of  starting, 
—  the  position  of  each  chariot  having  been  determined  by  lot.  The  indi- 
vidual fortunate  enough  to  olitain  a  place  on  the  left  was  supposed  to 
have  gained  something  in  his  favor,  as  in  turning  around  the  bounda- 


NESTOB'S  INSTBUCTIONS   TO  ANTILOCHUS.  127 

ries,  provided  he  did  not  fall  too  for  in  the  rear  before  reaching  them, 
the  inside  chariot  would  have  a  shorter  distance  to  run  than  those  on 
the  right  and  nearer  the  outer  side  of  the  circus.  After  running  twelve 
times  around  the  circus,  he  whose  chariot  came  in  first  on  the  last 
round  was  proclaimed  the  victor. 

It  is  evident  that  much  skill  was  required  in  those  who  followed  the 
profession  of  charioteer  or  driver,  which  could  only  be  attained  by 
constant  practice ;  consequently  the  choice  of  persons  for  that  ofiice 
was  not  a  matter  of  small  moment.  We  learn  from  history  that 
drivers  were  chosen  necessarily  from  people  of  the  highest  rank  in 
society,  as  the  position  was  one  of  the  greatest  responsibility.  It 
required  no  small  ingenuity,  in  combination  with  constant  practice,  to 
qualify  the  driver  so  as  to  expertly  manage  his  horses,  that  in  turning 
the  boundary  his  lack  of  skill  might  not  terminate  in  a  loss  of  the  prize, 
likewise  in  death.  Nestor,  in  Homer,  instructs  Antilochus  by  saying, 
"One  man  who  is  confident  in  his  steeds  and  chariot,  turns  imprudently 
hither  and  thither  over  much  [ground] ,  and  his  steeds  wander  through 
the  course,  nor  does  he  rein  them  in.  But  he,  on  the  contrary,  who 
is  acquainted  with  stratagem,  [though]  driving  inferior  steeds,  always 
looking  at  the  goal,  turns  it  close,  nor  does  it  escape  him  in  what 
manner  he  may  first  turn  the  course  with  his  leathern  reins ;  but  he 
holds  on  steadily  and  watches  the  one  Avho  is  before  him.  But  I  will 
show  thee  the  goal  easily  distinguished,  nor  shall  it  escape  thy  notice. 
A  piece  of  dry  wood,  as  much  as  a  cubit,  stands  over  the  ground, 
either  of  oak  or  of  larch,  which  is  not  rotted  by  rain ;  and  two  white 
stones  are  placed  on  either  side,  in  the  narrow  part  of  the  way,  but 
the  race-course  around  is  level ;  either  it  is  the  monument  of  some 
man  long  since  dead,  or  perhaps  it  has  been  a  goal  in  the  times  of 
former  men,  and  now  swift-footed  noble  Achilles  has  appointed  it  the 
goal.  Approaching  this  very  closely,  drive  thy  chariot  and  horses 
near,  but  incline  thyself  gently  towards  the  left  of  them  [the  steeds] , 
in  the  well-joined  chariot-seat,  and  cheering  on  the  right-hand  horse, 
apply  the  whip  and  give  him  the  rein  with  thy  hands.  Let  thy  left- 
hand  horse,  however,  be  moved  close  to  the  goal,  so  that  the  nave  of  the 
well-made  wheel  may  appear  to  touch  the  top  [of  the  post] ,  but  avoid 
to  touch  upon  the  stone,  lest  thou  both  wound  thy  horses  and  break  thy 
chariot  in  pieces,  and  l)e  a  joy  to  others  and  disgrace  thyself."  i 
'  Iliad,  B.  XXIII,  pp.  427,  428. 


128  GBECIAN   WOELD    ON  WHEELS. 

The  skill  displayed  by  some  ancient  charioteers  was  truly  astonish- 
ing. Plato  gives  an  account  of  one  Anniceus,  a  native  of  Africa,  who 
was  very  dexterous  in  handling  the  reins.  This  dark-skinned  chariot- 
eer, being  desirous  of  giving  the  celebrated  philosopher  proof  of  his 
ability  in  presence  of  a  great  multitude,  drove  several  times  around 
the  Academy  Avith  so  steady  a  rein  as  to  have  left  but  one  print  of  his 
chariot- wheels.  Domitius,  the  son  of  Cneius,  in  his  youth  was  famous 
for  his  skill  in  this  business. i 

Probably  no  better  description  of  the  Grecian  chariot-race  can  be 
found  anywhere  than  the  one  given  in  the  "Electra"  of  Sophocles,  a 
poetical  translation  of  which  is  subjoined :  — 

"  They  took  their  stand,  where  the  appointed  judges 
Had  cast  their  lots,  and  ranged  the  rival  cars. 
Rang  out  the  brazen  trump!    Away  they  bound. 
Cheer  the  hot  steeds  and  shake  the  slackened  reins. 
As  with  a  body,  the  large  space  is  filled 
With  the  huge  clangor  of  the  rattling  cars. 
High  whirl  aloft  the  dust-clouds,  blend  together, 
Each  presses  each;  and  the  lash  rings;  and  aloud 
Snort  the  wild  steeds,  and  from  their  fiery  breath, 
Along  their  manes  and  down  the  circling  wheels, 
Scatter  the  flaking  foam.     Orestes  still. 
Aye,  as  he  swept  around  the  perilous  pillar. 
Last  in  the  course,  wheeled  in  the  rushing  axle. 
The  left  rein  curbed,  that  on  the  dexter  hand 
Flung  loose,  —  so  on  erect  the  chariot  rolled! 
Sudden  the  (Enian's  fierce  and  headlong  steeds 
Broke  from  the  bit;  and  as  the  seventh  time  now 
The  course  was  circled,  on  the  Libyan  cars 
Dashed  with  wild  fronts.     Then  order  changed  to  ruin: 
Car  crushed  on  car;  the  wide  Crisssean  plain 
Was,  sea-like,  strewn  with  wrecks.     The  Athenian  saw, 
Slackened  his  speed,  and,  wheeling  around  the  marge, 
Unscathed  and  skillful,  in  the  midmost  space, 
Left  the  wild  tumult  of  that  tossing  storm. 
Behind,  Orestes,  hitherto  the  last, 
Had  yet  kept  back  his  coursers  for  the  close ; 
Now,  one  sole  rival  left,  on,  on  he  flew. 
And  the  sharp  sound  of  the  impelling  scourge 
Rang  in  the  keen  ears  of  the  flying  steeds. 
He  nears,  he  reaches,  they  are  side  by  side; 

'  Suetonius  in  Nero,  c.  3. 


EOS,    GODDESS    OF  THE  MOBNING. 


129 


Kow  one,  now  th'  other,  by  a  length  the  victor. 
The  courses  all  are  past,  the  wheels  erect, 
All  safe,  when,  as  the  hurrj'ing  coursers  round 
The  fatal  jDillars  clashed,  the  wretched  boy- 
Slackened  the  left  rein.     On  the  column's  edge 
Crashed  the  frail  axle ;  headlong  f rona  the  car, 
Caught  and  all  meshed  within  the  reins  he  fell; 
And,  masterless,  the  mad  steeds  raged  along." 

On  many  Greek  vases  there  are  figures  of  chariots  supposed  to 
ilhistrate  subjects 

taken   from    Ho-  ^  \\    \\  ()  O  i5yu 

mer,^  of  which  the  /^^^^^^  /^  \\A\ 

engraving  is  a 
specimen.  It  rep- 
resents Eos  as  the 
Goddess  of  the 
Morning,  about 
to  commence  her 
jom-ney  for  the 
day.  In  this  de- 
sign there  appear 
but  three  horses 
attached  to  a  char- 
iot. Although 
many  of  these 
vase-pictures  may 
to  a  cei-tain  extent 
be  the  fanciful  cre- 
ations of  the  pot- 
ter, still  they  un- 
doubtedly, in  a 
greater  or  lesser 
degree,  represent 
the  prevailing 
modes  of  vehicu- 
lar art  in  those 
times. 


*  This  most  eminent  of  Grecian  poets,  according  to  the  Anmdelian  marbles,  flour- 
ished in  the  tenth  century  B.  C,  tlie  contemporary  of  Daniel  and  Solomon,  about  two 
9 


130 


OBECIAN   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


Ill  Millingen's  volume  we  find  an  imperfect  representation  of  a  car 
drawn  by  two  horses,  in  which  is  seated  a  young  man  dressed  in  a 
red  tunic,  going  at  full  speed.  The  car  is  hung  very  high,  and 
the  wheels  are  singularly  constructed  without  either  hubs  or  spokes, 
instead  of  which  are  three  bars,  one  much  stronger  than  the  others, 
placed  diametrically,  and  perforated  in  the  middle  to  admit  the  end  of 
the  axle-tree,  and  is  crossed  at  right  angles  by  the  other  two  bars. 
The  horses  have  neither  reins  nor  harness,  but  are  yoked  to  the  car 
like  oxen.     Instead  of  bridles,  head-stalls  alone  are  shown,  designed 


Horses   guided    by    a    Staff. 

to  keep  the  horses  together,  the  collars  supporting  the  yoke  or  tran- 
som-bar fitted  to  the  end  of  the  pole.  The  driver,  contrary  to  the 
usual  custom  when  racing,  in  this  instance  is  seated.  Instead  of  reins 
he  uses  a  long  staff  in  guiding  his  horses,  which  is  bent  at  the  end  like 
a  shepherd's  crook,  similar  to  the  manner  practiced  in  Italy  at  the 
present  day  for  driving  oxen.  At  the  end  of  the  crook  are  two  articles 
apparently  of  metal,  for  producing  sound,  designed  to  animate  the 
horses,  instead  of  bells.     In  the  other  hand  of  the  driver  there  is  a 


liundred  years  after  the  destruction  of  ancient  Troy.  Flaxman  tells  us  that  "Homer 
supplied  subjects  for  both  painters  and  sculptors,  who  imbibed  electric  sparks  from  his 
poetic  fire." 


FLIGHT  OF  FBI  AM  FBOM  TROY. 


131 


goiid,  and  a  red  spot  on  the  flank  of  one  of  the  horses  is  indicative  of 
its  eflfect.  This  mode  of  driving  a  team  is  said  to  have  been  practiced 
by  the  Libyans  and  other  African  nations.  Even  in  later  times  the 
Numidian  cavahy  would  never  adopt  the  use  of  bridles,  but  drove 
their  horses  by  the  goad  and  the  voice. 

The  next  illustration,  from  an  ancient  Grecian  vase,  is  supposed  to 
represent  the  flight  of  Priam  from  Troy  on  its  being  sacked  and  burned 
by  the  Greeks, 
as  described  by 
Homer.  1  ^ne- 
as,  his  son,  it 
is  said,  rescued 
his  father  and 
his  household 
gods,  but  on 
the  way  lost  his 
wife  Creusa.^ 

On  the  sar- 
cophagus which 
among  other 
things  enclosed 
the  celebrated 
Portland  Vase, 
now   deposited 

in  the  British  Museum,  appear  two  chariots,  the  one  drawn  by  horses, 
the  other  by  mules.  In  the  group,  Galen,  from  Pergamus,  in  Asia 
Minor,  is  made  to  personify  Priam,  king  of  Troy.  This  monarch,  the 
poet  tells  us,  Hermes  conveyed  invisibly  to  the  tent  of  Achilles,  to 
solicit  of  him  the  dead  body  of  Hector,  as  detailed  in  the  twenty-third 
book  of  the  Iliad.  In  the  sulycct  the  Trojan  is  found  in  a  supplicating 
posture  at  the  feet  of  Achilles,  who,  turning  away  his  head  in  disdain, 
refuses  to  entertain  his  plea.  In  the  distance  there  is  a  chariot  filled 
with  presents,  and  nearer  by  an  empty  one  for  receiving  the  body. 
Both  are  attended  by  Ethiopian  servants. 3 

The  next  design,  from  another  Grecian  vase,  represents  Mars,  the 

'  Some  modern  skeptics  cleuy  that  Troy  ever  existed,  and  say  that  Homer  is  a  myth. 

^  Virgil's  ^Eiiead,  B.  II. 

^  See  Wiudust,  On  the  Portland  Vase,  p.  87. 


Grecian  Wain,  from  a  Vase. 


132 


GRECIAN-   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


God  of  War,  as  just  stepping  into  liis  chariot,  attended  hy  soldiers  in 
armor.  In  this  case  the  god  chooses  to  act  the  part  of  charioteer  as 
well  as  combatant  on  the  field,  although  among  the  ancients  the  war- 
rior was  ranked  higher  than  the  driver,  the  former  having  the  solo 
direction  where  to  drive.  By  acting  the  part  of  charioteer,  the  im- 
mortal seems  to  have  compromised  his  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  mortals. 


Wak-chariot    of  Mars. 

According  to  Homer,  the  Grecians  took  special  pains  to  have  their  war- 
chariots  "  well  fastened  "  and  "  well  made  "  to  stand  the  concussion  and 
strain  of  battle,  and  considered  it  much  safer  to  remain  in  them  while  the 
conflict  was  maintained,  than  to  alight  and  fight  on  foot,  as  some  other 
nations  did.  In  these  contests,  "with  blood  the  whole  axle-tree  was 
stained  beneath,  and  the  rims  around  the  chariot-seat,  which  the  drops 
from  the  horses'  hoofs  and  from  the  wheel-tires  spattered."^  It  is  said 
that  the  steeds  of  Mars  were  "gold  frontleted,"^  and  that  the  "  Carian 
women  tinged  ivory  with  purple  color  to  be  a  check-trapping."  ^ 

The  chariots  of  Homer's  epic  are  quite  smothered  in  adjectives.  He 
tells  us  they  were  "curiously  made,"'*  with  round  fronts,^  well  joined,*^ 
well  wheeled,^  and  "brass  mounted,"^  furnished  with  "well-formed 


'  Iliad,  Bolin's  Edition,  p.  205. 
s  Ibid.,  p.  107. 


2  Ibid.,  p.  90. 
«Ibid.,  p.  195. 


Ibid.,  p.  67. 
Odys.,  p.  81. 


Ibid.,  p.  327. 
Iliad,  p.  74. 


HOMER'S  DESCRIPTION  OF  JUNO'S   CHARIOT. 


133 


seats,"'  and  were  given  as  splendid  presents ^  to  Jupiter,  Neptune, 
and  other  immortals.^  Minerva's  "shining  chariot"  is  described  as 
having  "  a  beechen  axle-tree  groaning  beneath  its  weight  on  a  certain 
occasion  when  it  bore  a  dreadful  goddess  and  [Diomede]  a  very  brave 
hero."^  The  minute  description  of  Juno's  chariot  in  the  fifth  book  of 
the  Iliad  is  extremely  beautiful.  We  sul^join  a  free  translation : 
Juno  on  her  part,  venerable  goddess,  daughter  of  mighty  Saturn, 
quickly  moving  harnessed  her  gold-caparisoned  steeds ;  but  Hel)e 
[the  daughter  of  Jupiter  and  Juno,  afterwards  the  wife  of  Her- 
cules]  speedily  applied  to  the  chariot  axle-trees  of  iron,  the  curved 


Grecian   Lady's   Quadriga. 

wheels  golden,  with  eight  spokes.  Indeed,  the  felloes  of  these  were 
gold  imperishable,  and  around  them  were  fastened  brazen  tires,  won- 
derful to  the  sight ;  but  the  circular  naves  on  both  sides  were  of  silver. 
The  body,  from  which  projected  a  silver  pole,  had  a  circular  rim 
doubled,  and  was  suspended  on  thongs  of  silver  and  gold.  At  the 
extremity  [of  the  pole]  she  fastened  the  beauteous  golden  yoke,  and 
to  it  attached  the  beautiful  golden  poitrels.  But  Juno,  longing  for 
battle  and  conquest,  led  the  swift-footed  steeds  under  the  yoke.^ 

Besides  the  above,  we  have  Jove's  "beauteous-wheeled  chariot," 
Menelaus's  "well-made  chariot,"  Agamemnon's  "brass-variegated  char- 
iot," and  Ulysses's  "well-wrought  chariot-seat."     In  other  passages  we 


'  Iliad,  Bohn's  Edition,  p.  310. 
*Ibid.,  p.  103. 


2  Odys.,  p.  327. 


^  Iliad,  pp.  13G,  229. 
^Ibid.,  p.  100. 


134  GBECIAN   WOBLD   01^  WHEELS. 

read  of  the  "  well-polished  chariot,"  and  of  the  seats,  that  they  were 
"well  formed"  and  "well  joined."  Added  to  these  we  have  "the 
well-glued  car"  of  Achilles,  —  from  which  it  appears  that  gelatine  was 
as  important  an  article  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times,  —  ''the  well- 
wheeled  mule-drawn  car "  in  use  at  the  funeral  of  Hector,  and  learn 
furthermore  that  the  Greeks  yoked  both  oxen  and  mules  beneath  their 
wao-ons.  So  much  were  chariots  in  esteem  that  "  they  tilted  the  char- 
iots against  the  splendid  walls,"  '  or  were  taken  into  the  tent  and 
"  covered  up  with  a  covering."  ^  All  who  have  studied  "  the  Old  Man 
of  Ascrea's"  immortal  epic  will  see  that  he  entertained  a  very  high 
opinion  of  chariots,  for  he  has  placed  the  Thunderer  and  his  erratic 
spouse  therein,  as  well  as  other  deities  of  lesser  fame,  and  sent  them 
off  to  the  wars  with  becoming  dignity. 

Similar  expressions  to  those  of  Homer  are  found  in  Hesiod.  He 
has  mention  of  "well-framed  cars,"^  "well-compacted  chariots,"^ 
"well-wheeled  chariots,"^  and  "crooked  [curved]  cars,"^  etc.  He 
likewise  speaks  of  wagons  and  carts  to  which  mules  and  oxen  were 
yoked  for  use  in  agriculture.^  This  old  author  even  tells  us  the  time 
when  it  is  best  to  fell  timber,  and  says  that  it  should  be  in  autumn, 
after  the  leaves  have  fallen. 

"  For  then  the  star  of  day  with  transient  light 
Eolls  o'er  our  heads,  and  joys  in  longer  night. 
When  from  the  worm  the  forest  bolls  are  sound, 
Trees  bud  no  more,  but  earthward  cast  around 
Their  withering  foliage,  then  remember  well 
The  timely  labor,  and  thy  timber  fell. 
A  three-foot  mortar,  and  of  cubits  three 
A  pestle  hew,  and  seven-foot  axle-tree : 
Commodious  length,  if  eight  the  ax  beside. 
Hew  the  curved  blocks  for  felloes,  and  sustain 
On  wheels  three  spans  round  the  ten-span  wain." 

Lucian  says  that  the  princes  and  princesses  of  Greece  were  accus- 
tomed to  use  splendid  chariots  on  private  occasions. ^  The  engraving 
may  represent  one  of  this  kind,  being  low  at  the  sides,  as  we  have 
previously  observed,  that  the  dress  might  be  seen  to  good  advantage. 
These  Grecian  ladies  appear  to  have  exhibited  much  taste  and  some 

'  Iliad,  Bohn's  Edition,  p.  147.  ^  Ibid. 

»  Shield  of  Hercules,  Elton's  Translation,  1.  89.        ^  Ibid.,  1.  411.         ^  Ibid.,  1.  627. 

«  Ibid.,  1.  437.  ^  Hesiod's  Works  and  Days,  11.  45-56.  •*  Lucian,  B.  V. 


GBEGIAN  LADY'S   OPEN  GHABIOT. 


135 


pride  in  their  flowing  robes  of  variegated  color,  especially  when  they 
went  out  for  a 
chariot  ride,  as 
they  often  did, 
as  is  proved 
by  numerous 
passages  in 
classic  story. 
On  the  large 
limestone 
slabs  covering 
graves  recent- 
ly unearthed 
by  Dr.  Schlie- 
mann  at  My- 
cenfB  are  sev- 
eral represen- 
tations of  char- 
iots. One  such 
has  a  figure 
of  a  warrior, 
lance  in  hand, 
standing  up  in 

the  chariot,  drawn  by  a  horse  with  widely  extended  legs,  showing  him 
at  great  speed.  The  wheel  has  only  four  spokes,  forming  a  cross,  as 
at  page  123.  Another  slab  represents  a  warrior  in  a  chariot,  with  a 
broadsword  in  the  left  hand,  and  a  long  lance  in  the  other  thrust  into 
the  neck  of  a  fantastic-looking  animal  on  the  run.  In  front  of  the 
pierced  animal  stands  another  man  with  a  large  knife  in  his  right, 
holding  the  horns  of  the  animal  with  the  left  hand,  partially  concealing 
the  horse  in  the  chariot.    Probably  these  all  have  symbolical  meanings. 


li  R  K  C  I  A  N     li  A  D  y  '  S     B  1  G  A  . 


Anticipating  chronology,  —  as  we  do  not  intend  to  devote  a  chapter 
to  the  subject,  —  we  add  a  specimen  of  Etruscan  chariots  from  an 
ancient  vase,  of  which  there  is  a  very  large  collection  in  the  British 
Museum.  The  antugen,  or  curved  rave  of  the  Grecian  chariot,  is  a 
prominent  feature  in  the  Etruscan,  which  appears  to  have  been  copied 


136 


GBEGIAN  WORLD   01^  WHEELS. 


after  it,  and  which,  as  far  as  is  now  known,  was  not  adopted  by  any- 
other  nation.     The  picture  appears  to  represent  a  contest  between 

Neptune  and 
Hercules,  as 
indicated  by 
the  trident  and 
the  lion's  skin. 
Persons  curi- 
ous in  such 
ip-    ((-  /  ""^^^^i^^^*^^^.'''!!/ Al*^:^         matters      will 

[(•  /^^^^^kiOw|)iMV    I  w^^v/^  ^^^^  numerous 

't¥=J|  /  <  -4\-i\-Mm]\\\    \x}       ly/^  examples     of 

iTRuscAN  BiGA.  tMs  uaturc  in 

Christie's  volume,  among  them  a  quadriga  in  which  a  man  is  seated, 
the  car  being  preceded  by  Mercury,  "petasated  and  booted,"  bearing 
the  caduceus,  with  an  attendant  marching  beside  the  horses  beckoning 
another  person  on.  This  figure  is  supposed  to  represent  some  deity  as 
being  on  the  way  to  harmonize  the  universe. ^ 

It  is  a  matter  of  some  regret,  that,  without  occupying  too  much 
space,  we  cannot  pursue  this  subject  further.  A  comparison  of  the 
chariots  of  Etruria  with  those  of  Greece,  of  which  it  was  a  colony, 
would  prove  a  profitable  field  for  study.  Those  interested  will  find 
the  volumes  named  in  this  chapter  in  the  Astor  Library,  New  York 
City. 


Christie  ou  Etruscan  Vases,  Londou,  1825,  p.  69. 


ALL  STBEETS  LEAD   TO  BOMB. 


137 


CHAPTER    V. 


ROMAN   VEHICULAR   ART   AND    ITS   ASSOCIATIONS. 

"  Primus  Erichthonius  currus  et  quatuor  ausus 
Juugere  equos  rapisdusque  rotis  insistere  victor, 
Frena  Pelethronii  Lapithaa  gyrosque  dedere, 
Impositi  dorso  :  atque  equitera  docuere  sub  armis 
Insultare  solo,  et  gressus  glomerare  superbos."  ' 

Virgil's  Georgicon. 


^EGIONARY  Rome  having 
brought  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries into  subjection,  the  next 
thing  to  be  done  was  to  main- 
tain her  power  and  keep  them 
submissive.  With  this  end 
in  view,  the  Romans  con- 
structed military  roads,  di- 
verging from  a  certain  point  in  the  city,  and  lead- 
ing to  these  subdued  provinces  in  all  directions,  so 
that  in  time  it  was  proverbially  said  that  "  all  streets 
led  to  Rome."  2  These  roads  were  so  substantially  built  that  traces 
of  them  still  remain.  Over  these  "  royal  highways  "  the  wealthier  class 
of  citizens  were  accustomed  to  drive,  exhibiting  a  degree  of  splendor 


'  Thus  rendered  by  Sotlieby  :  — 

"Bold  Erichthonius  first  four  coursers  yolied 
And  urged  tlie  chariot  as  the  axle  smoked. 
The  skillful  Lapithse  first  taught  to  guide 
The  mounted  steeds,  and  rein  their  tempered  pride ; 
Taught  under  arms  to  prance  and  wheel  around, 
Press  their  proud  steps  and  paw  the  insulted  ground." 
^  Rome  was  first  settled  by  a  colony  from  Alba  Longa,  —  a  city  said  to  have  been 
founded  by  Ascanius,  the  sou  of  Ji^neas  by  Creusa,  —  under  Romulus,  Avho  with  his 
twin  brother  Remus  is  fabled  to  have  been  suckled  by  a  wolf,  about  A.  C.  753.     In  the 
course  of  time  she  became  the  mistress  of  the  then  known  world.     It  conferred  distin- 


138  EOMAN  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

never  before  seen  in  daily  life.  To  such  an  extent  was  this  carried  in 
the  middle  of  the  first  century  that  people  who  aspired  to  fashion 
appeared  on  the  Appian  or  Flaminian  roads,  or  in  excursions  to  their 
villas  out  of  town,  with  trains  of  Numidians  mounted  on  horses  brought 
from  Africa,  who,  riding  before  the  carriages  of  the  wealthy  Eomans, 
gave  notice  by  the  clouds  of  dust  they  raised  that  some  great  man  was 
on  the  move.^ 

The  Eomans  appear  to  have  had  a  greater  variety  of  vehicles  than 
any  earlier  nation.  This  doubtless  was  in  consequence  of  their  having 
superior  roads  and  more  tempting  ofiers  for  display.  Although  these 
Roman  carriages  have  been  carelessly  mixed  up  with  those  of  Greece 
by  other  writers,  we  shall  endeavor  in  the  course  of  this  chapter  to 
present  the  different  varieties  in  a  proper  light  before  the  reader. 

The  earlier  mode  of  travel  was  in  the  lectica,  or  sedan,  supposed  to 
have  been  introduced  into  Rome  from  the  East  towards  the  end  of  the 
Republic,  the  Emperor  Claudius  being  the  first  to  use  one  with  a 
canopy.  These  were  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  four  slaves,  as  has 
been  done  in  later  times,  the  construction  of  those  for  women  difiering 
from  those  used  by  men.  In  the  time  of  Julius  Ctesar,  these  litters 
were  a  prescribed  article  to  all  under  a  certain  age  on  certain  days,  as 
well  as  purple  robes  and  jewek.^  Subsequently  litters  so  increased  in 
numbers  as  to  incommode  travelers  in  the  public  thoroughfares. 

Following  the  sedan  was  the  basterna,  chiefly  borne  by  mules.  Ci- 
cero tells  us  that  Verres  made  use  of  one  superbly  decorated,  the  cush- 
ions being  stulTod  with  roses.  This  had  a  seat  in  the  center  on  which 
the  traveler  sat  upright.  Such  was  the  estimation  in  which  they  were 
held  in  the  reign  of  Domitian,  that  infamous  women  were  forbidden  to 
ride  in  them.^  The  travel  in  these  was  so  slow  that  Augustus  took 
two  days  in  reaching  Prseneste  on  the  Tiber.     For  this  reason  he  pre- 

guislied  honor  on  an  individual  to  be  called  a  Roman  citizen.  Unless  promoted  to  some 
public  office,  the  law  gave  a  father  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  children,  as 
long  as  they  lived,  if  sous ;  and  over  the  daughters  until  given  away  in  marriage. 

*  "  Omnes  jam  sic  peregrinautur,  ut  illos  Numidarum  Jusecurrat  equitatus,  atque  ut 
agmen  cursorem  antecedat;  turpe  est  uullos  esse,  qui  occurrentes  via  dejicerant;  qui 
honestum  horainem  venire  raaguo  pulvere  ostendaut."  —  Seneca,  Epist.,  123. 

*  "Lecticarum  usum,  item  conchyliata3  vestis,  ct  margaritarum,  nisi  ccrtis  persouis, 
et  ajtatibus,  perque  certos  dies,  ademit."  —  Suet.,  C  J.  Ccesaris,  ch.  43,  et  Claud., 
ch.  28. 

3  Suet.,  Domit.,  ch.  8. 


CABPENTUM  FBOM  BOMAN  COINS. 


139 


ferred  going  by  sea.^  On  one  occasion,  while  traveling  in  the  night, 
his  basterna  was  struck  by  lightning,  the  same  bolt  killing  the  slave 
carrying  the  torch  before  him.^  In  illustrating  the  difSculties  of  travel, 
we  need  only  mention  that  Tiberius,  finding  his  litter  obstructed  by 
bushes,  once  ordered  an  officer  of  the  first  cohort,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  ride  ahead  and  examine  the  roads,  for  neglect,  to  be  laid  with  his 
face  to  the  ground  and  scourged  until  he  was  nearly  dead.^ 

One  of  the  earlier  as  well  as  the  most  popular  vehicles  was  the 
carj)entum,  named  in  honor  of  Carmenta,  the  mother  of  Evander.  It 
was  sometimes  called  the  covered  litter, 
which  latter  it  appears  to  have  supplanted. 
These  were  frequently  represented  on  Eoman 
coins.  One  issued  during  Caligula's  short 
reign  (A.  D.  37-40,  Y.  E.  790-793) ,  in  honor 
of  the  infamous  Agrippina,  is  shown  in  the 
cno-ravino;.  Historians  tell  us  that  the  car- 
pentum  Avas  frequently  lined  with  costly 
cloths  and  profusely  ornamented.  It  was 
decidedly  the  ladies'  carriage,  often  devoted 
to  conveying  the  imngcs  of  such  females  as  had  been  decreed  divine 
honors  under  the  Empire  by  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome.^  Under 
the  Oppian  law,  the  women  for  certain  reasons  were,  during  the  second 
Punic  War,  forbidden  its  use. 

About  fifty  years  later  (A.  D.  90)  the  like  honor  was  shown  Julia 
in  the  reign  of  Domitian.  The  carpentum, 
as  seen  by  comparison,  has  undergone  some 
changes,  —  among  others,  had  the  sides  of 
the  top  enclosed.  Livy  informs  us  that  the 
carpentum  was  sometimes  used  for  carrying 
the  matrons  in  procession  on  funeral  occa- 
sions, but  this  distinctive  privilege  had  to  be 
obtained  by  special  decree  from  the  Roman 
Senate.  This  carriage  usually  had  seats  for 
two,  but  on  some  occasions  it  was  provided  carpentum,  tem p.  Do m it 
with  another  for  the  accommodation  of  a  third  person  and  the  driver. 


Carpentum,  Temp.  Calig. 


Suet.,  Auf).,  ch.  82.  ^  Suet.,  Aug.,  ch.  29.  »  Suet.,  Tib.,  ch.  60. 

"Matri  carpentum,  quod  per  Circum  cluceretur."—  Suet.,  in  Claud.,  ch.  11. 


140 


BOM  AN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


Some  of  these  vehicles  were  so  luxuriously  finished,  and  crowded  by 
women,  children,  eunuchs,  and  lazy  men,  that  Juvenal  found  occasion 
for  making  the  practice  a  subject  of  satire.^ 

Carpentum  seems  to  have  been  the  generic  term  for  different  descrip- 
tions of  covered  two-wheeled  vehicles.  They  were  employed  in  various 
forms  for  town  uses,  traveling,  and  even  for  wedding  occasions.  On 
the  night  of  a  marriage  the  bridegroom  bore  away  the  bride  from  her 

Seated  on  the  right  of  his  bride, 


father's  house  to  his  own  dwelling. 


Carpentum.  —  Carry 


OFF   THE   Bride. 


with  a  confidential  friend  on  her  left,  the  carpentum  was  driven  through 
many  of  the  public  streets,  the  friends  of  the  parties  leading  the  way, 
while  the  servants  and  slaves  followed  after  the  carriage.  From  the 
windows  the  l^ridcgroom  scattered  nuts  among  the  spectators,  shouting, 
"  iSjpargere  marite  nuces  !  "  ^ 

The  carpentum  with  four  wheels,  a  rare  thing,  seems  to  have  been 
used  almost  exclusively  by  emperors,  princes,  and  the  chief  officers 

^  "Pra3tor  majorum  cineres  atque  ossa  volucri 
Carpeuto  rapitur  pinguis  Damasippus,  et  ipse, 
Ipse  rotam  abstriugit  miilto  sufllamiue  consul ; 
Nocte  quidem ;  seel  luna  viclct,  sed  sidera  testes 
Intenduut  ociilns."  —  Juvenal,  Satire,  VIII,  14G. 
Thus  literally  rendered :  "By  the  ashes  and  bones  of  his  ancestors  the  fat  Damasip- 
pus is  hurried  in  his  rapid  carpentum,  and  himself,  himself  a  consul,  locks  the  wheel 
with  a  long  drag-chain;  by  night,  it  is  true;  but  the  moon  sees,  but  the  stars  [as]  wit- 
nesses, stretch  their  eyes  [towards  him]."    This  vehicle  is  the  apene  of  the  Greeks. 

*  "  Spargere  marite  nuces,"  signifying  thereby  that  he  had  relinquished  all  childish 
amusements  for  the  state  of  manhood.  A  ceremony  akin  to  this  is  still  practiced  in 
our  day,  wherein  a  shoe  is  thrown  after  the  carriage  of  a  newly  married  pair  by  the 
friends  to  signify  luck.  The  humorists  tell  us  that  this  practice  is  designed  to  show 
that  the  chances  of  matrimony  are  very  slippery. 


CABPENTUM  POMPATTCVM  OF  STATE.  141 

of  stiitc.  They  were  seen  at  the  circus  festivals  on  opening  days, 
bearing  the  lares  and  penates  (household  gods)  of  this  idolatrous 
people,  among  which  they  placed  the  images  of  deified  Caesars,  many 
of  whom  were  devils  incarnate,  and  guilty  of  the  most  revolting  crimes 
known  among  men.  Like  the  pilentu7n,  hereafter  introduced,  the  car- 
pentum  was  usually  hung  on  swinging  poles,  having  higher  wheels 
than  the,chariot,  with  wooden  side  panels  two  feet  high.  The  entrance 
was  at  the  back  end  of  the  vehicle,  through  a  door  hung  upon  hinges, 
in  the  manner  of  some  modern  carriages,  fitted  with  a  kind  of  lock  to 
fasten  it.  Four  caryatides  (human  figures)  or  other  effigies  formed 
the  pillars,  gilded,  or  else  of  ivory,  gold,  or  silver,  supporting  the 
canopy  or  covering.  This  covering,  as  before  mentioned,  was  often  a 
richly  colored  cloth,  embroidered  with  silver  or  gold,  or  both,  and 
overlaid  with  laminae  or  tiles,  and  sometimes  the  sides  were  enclosed 
with  entire  sheets  of  that  metal.  The  interior  trimmings  were  richly 
wrought  stuffs,  stuffed  to  make  them  soft,  and  the  seat,  accommodated 
for  reclining,  was  trimmed  with  the  same  material,  and  embroidered 
with  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  and  pearls.  These  seats  were  hung 
on  straps  to  a  cross-bar,  the  hanging  strap,  which  fitted  flat  to  the 
sides  of  the  body,  being  fastened  to  straps  which  grasped  the  seat.  A 
step  facilitated  entrance  behind.  From  some  examples  it  appears  that 
windows  at  the  side  were  often  made  in  the  carpentum.  These,  we 
are  told,  ran  in  grooves,  and  were  raised  or  let  down  at  the  pleasure 
of  the  occupant.  The  glasses  of  these  were  made  of  talc,  thin  horn, 
bleached  selenite,  or  moon-stone  serving  as  transparencies.  These 
windows  were  furnished  with  inside  curtains  or  blinds  of  painted  linen, 
frequently  eml)roidered.  The  back  and  front  were  furnished  with 
appropriate  curtains,  which  could  be  drawn  aside  at  pleasure. 

Among  the  Romans  a  wide  difference  prevailed  in  driving  carriages, 
whether  on  special  or  ordinary  days.  The  carpentum  pomjpaticum,  or 
state  coach,  was  only  allowed  by  the  Senate  to  such  persons  and  their 
families  as  had  gained  distinction  by  their  public  actions  for  the  good 
of  the  state,  and  the  honor  on  all  public  festivals  was  strictly  confined 
to  such  in  the  procession.  While  on  ordinary  days  no  particular  rule 
was  observed  in  public,  and  particularly  in  sacred  processions,  no  one 
was  suffered  to  appear  who  had  no  right  by  law,  and  those  who  had 
the  right  were  not  allowed  to  drive  in  any  vehicle  unless  sanctioned  by 
custom.     According  to  Tacitus,  this  custom  or  law  continued  for  a 


142 


BOMAN    WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 


long  period,  until  the  infamous  and   ambitious  Messallina,  tlic  wife 

of  Claudius  Caesar,  regardless 
of  the  feelings  of  the  Roman 
people,  rode  into  the  capital 
on  a  carpentum.^  When  af- 
terwards ladies  of  distinction 
rode  to  the  capital  in  solemn 
procession,  it  was  considered 
an  act  of  pride  and  presump- 
tioii  on  their  part. 

Another  very  soft  and  com- 
fortable carriage  was  called  the 
pilentum.2  This  was  fashion- 
able among  all  classes.  It  was 
a  special  favorite  with  the  Ro- 
man ladies.  Its  light  con- 
struction when  compared  with 
other  Roman  vehicles  seems  to  have  greatly  recommended  it  to  gen- 
eral use.  According  to  Livy^  and  others,  this,  the  most  popular  of 
all  Roman  cxirriages,  was  the  favorite  vehicle  with  the  matrons  Avhen 
they  visited  the  temples  to  perform  the  sacred  rites  or  mysteries  of 
their  religion.  From  a  passage  in  Virgil  (^Hn  moUibus  pilenti,''''  —  in 
the  easy  pilentum)  some  have  inferred  that  the  pilentum  was  suspended 


Carpentum   Pompaticum, 


'  "  Currum  ejus  Messalliua  uxor  carpento  secuta  est."  —  Suet.,  iu  Claud.,  ch.  17. 
Such  was  the  recklessness  of  Claudius  that  at  one  time  he  ordered  a  car  plated  with 
silver,  of  very  sumptuous  Avorlvmanship,  which,  after  being  exposed  for  sale  iu  the 
street  Sigillaria,  he  had  purchased,  to  be  broken  in  pieces  before  his  eyes.  Suet.,  in 
Claud.,  ch.  16. 

^  The  name  is  said  by  some  writers  to  have  been  derived  from  pilens,  a  hat,  the 
pilentum  in  some  instances  having  a  half-round  top  or  roof;  and  by  others  from  jnla, 
a  pilaster,  four  of  which  supported  the  covering,  as  shown  iu  the  engraving  on  the 
opposite  page.  Adams  represents  the  pilentum  as  having  four  wheels  in  some  in- 
stances, in  which  he  differs  from  other  authors  better  qualified  to  judge. 

^  "Honorem  ab  earn  muuiflcentiam  ferunt  matronis,  habitum  ut  pilento  ad  sacra 
ludosque,  carpenti  festo  profestoque  uterentur."  —  Livy,  V,  25.  On  one  occasion, 
when  the  Senate  found  that  gold  could  not  be  obtained  in  sufficient  quantity  to  dis- 
charge a  vow  it  had  made  to  Apollo,  the  Romau  matrons  came  forward  with  their  coin 
and  ornaments,  and  cast  them  into  the  public  treasury.  The  grateful  Senate,  in  re- 
warding this  generosity,  decreed  that  the  matrons  thereafter  might  use  covered  char- 
iots (pilentum)  when  going  to  public  worship  and  the  games,  and  open  chaises  on 
festival  and  common  days. 


ROMAN  LADIES'   FAVOBITE,    THE  PILENTUM. 


143 


oil  poles  or  straps,  or  some  other  contrivance,  rendering  them  easy 
riding;  but  all  such  conjectures  are  evidently  mere  speculations, 
unsupported  by  any  pictorial  evidence  existing  in  our  day.  The 
wheels  appear  to  have  been  much  lighter  and  higher  than  in  most 
other  Roman  vehicles ;  and  this  fact,  in  connection  with  their  light 
and  airy  construction  generally,  is  sufficient,  by  comparison,  to  entitle 
them  to  the  qualification  "easy,"  particularly  so  to  the  draft-animals. 
The  roof  was  sometimes  sup- 
ported by  long  and  slender 
pillars,  the  sides  having  only 
narrow  festoon  curtains,  being 
left  entirely  open  at  the  sides 
and  ends  so  as  to  expose  the 
occupants  completely  to  view. 
The  sides  of  the  panels  were 
usually  set  off  with  figures  of 
some  description.  The  strictly 
classical  character  of  the  illus- 
tration is  significant,  and  stamps 
it  as  the  result  of  much  study 
on  the  part  of  the  original  in-  .^^=^ 
ventor.  We  have  evidence 
that  the  pilentum  was  often  -^ 
extravagantly  finished,  the  pil- 
lars supporting  the  top  being 
rich  in  material  as  well  as  workmanship,  in  some  instances  the  cushions 
and  other  interior  furniture  being  made  from  wool  or  silk  according 
to  the  purses  of  the  owners.  According  to  Servius,  the  bodies  of 
these  vehicles  were  generally  painted  red  in  his  time,  but,  earlier, 
sky-blue  prevailed. 

We  have  elsewhere  observed  that  the  ancient  Romans  had  carriages 
adapted  to  difierent  purposes.  The  pilentum  was  fitted  for  showing 
off  the  rich  costumes  of  the  Roman  matrons  on  all  public  occasions, 
and  for  the  exhibit  of  the  votive  ofierings  consecrated  to  the  heathen 
deities,  and  therefore  for  a  long  time  was  the  only  vehicle  allowed  in 
religious  processions,  — a  particular  mark  of  distinction  from  the  Sen- 
ate to  those  who  had  sacrificed  their  jewels  and  ornaments  for  the 
public  good.     The  pilentum  was  frequently  used  to  convey  the  vestals 


Thf   Pilentum. 


144  BOMAN    WORLD    ON    WHEELS. 

to  the  temple,  for  Prudentius  says,  "Meanwhile  the  celibate  priest- 
ess, as.  ill  public  pomps,  rides  in  the  pilentnm,  blowing  the  sacred  fire 
and  showing  herself  to  the  city."  A  passage  in  Macrobius  confirms 
this  opinion.  The  pilentum  seems  to  have  been  employed  extensively 
in  traveling  long  distances,  their  lightness  no  donbt  contributing  to 
this  end. 

The  cisium  ^  was  another,  supposed  to  have  been  a  still  lighter 
vehicle,  on  two  wheels,  much  used  in  carrying  the  mails  from  one 
town  to  another.  Its  very  name  would  seem  to  indicate  speed. ^  The 
drivers  of  the  cisium  were  called  cisiarii,  and  were  often  punished  for 
driving  too  fast  and  ill-treating  j)assengers,  —  worthy  prototypes  of 
our  modern  Jehus. 

The  annexed  engraving  is  supposed  to  represent  a  cisium,  and  is 
copied  from  a  Roman  monumental  column  at  Ingel,  near  Treves,  in 
France.  They  are  said  to  have  had  the  wheels  much  larger  than  those 
of  any  other  carriage  in  use  among  the 
Romans.  Cicero  states  that  messengers 
traveled  in  them  fifty-six  miles  in  ten 
hours,  considered  very  quick  time  in  those 
days.  Ausonius,  in  speaking  of  a  three- 
horse  cisium,  says  it  is  so  light  and  expe- 
ditious that  "when  only  two  traveled,  the 
gentry  could  easily  visit  their  neighbors 
at  their  villas  in  the  country."  In  a  speech 
before  the  Roman  Senate  in  defense  of  Roscio,  it  is  stated  that  in  ten 
hours  of  the  night  he  flew  fifty-six  thousand  steps  in  cisiis,^  not  only 
mentioning  the  speed  at  which  he  traveled,  but  plainly  showing  that 
several  carriages  were  employed  between  difierent  posts ;  that  no 
sooner  was  the  traveler  put  down  at  one  cisiarii,  or  stage-ofllce,  than 
the  cisiarius  was  ready  to  forward  him  to  the  next  without  the  least 
delay.  As  previously  mentioned,  the  drivers  were  rather  "fiist  boys," 
and  among  the  Roman  laws  are  found  some  severe  penalties  for  their 

*  Some  authors  maintaiu  that  the  uame  "cisium"  is  derived  from  the  Latin  word 
cito,  quick ;  others  assert  that  it  received  its  name  from  scissum,  cut,  a  hole  being  cut 
through  the  sides  of  the  body. 

''"lude  cisio  celeriter  ad  urbem  vectus  domum  venit,  capite  involuto."  —  Cicero, 
P/w7.,II,  31. 

^"Decern  horis  nocturnis  sex  et  quisquaginta  millia  passum  cisiis  pervolavit."  — 
Cicero,  Bosc,  Am.,  7. 


CISIUM,   THE  nOMAN  POST-GABBIAQE.  145 

punishment.  They  were  not  only  reckless  drivers,  but  very  remiss  in 
duty  towards  those  who  employed  them.  In  traveling  at  night,  as 
they  frequently  did,  the  Eoman  postilions  very  often  upset  the  cisium 
in  racing  with  other  vehicles  or  in  passing  them  on  the  road.  Having 
higher  wheels  than  other  vehicles,  it  rendered  them  more  liable  to 
such  accidents. 

In  the  days  of  Julius  Csesar,  the  cisium,  being  the  post-carriage  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  was  by  them  introduced  into  Italy  and  Gaul  after 
the  conquest  of  those  nations.  Intercourse  was  kept  up  by  using  them 
between  the  chief  stations  and  military  camps,  their  light  construction 
rendering  them  very  efficient  for  that  purpose.  The  Romans  were 
noted  for  making  good  roads,  being  solid,  level,  and  dry,  and  carried 
forward  in  as  straight  a  line  as  possible,  so  as  to  economize  in  both 
time  and  distance.  The  highest  elevations  were  selected  as  points  of 
survey,  from  which  the  next  post  or  station,  often  at  considerable  dis- 
tance, might  be  seen.  In  order  to  obtain  the  earliest  intelligence  of 
what  was  passing  in  the  provinces,  Augustus  established  posts,  consist- 
ing at  first  of  young  men  stationed  at  moderate  distances  along  the 
military  roads,  and  afterwards  of  regular  couriers  with  fast  vehicles. 
Appian,  says  Curio,  with  Caesar's  letters,  traveled  three  thousand  three 
hundred  stadia  in  three  days.  Tiberius  Nero,  according  to  Pliny, 
traveled,  in  three  cisiums,  one  day  and  one  night,  two  hundred  miles 
to  visit  a  sick  brother. 

A  vehicle  supposed  to  represent  different  varieties  of  the  cisium  is 
found  on  antique  gems,  often  illustrative  of  mythology,  or  in  honor  of 
some  noted  personage.  Our  engraving  is  an  ex- 
ample of  this  kind,  in  which  deer  are  found,  indic- 
ative of  speed,  to  which  generally  tAvo  horses  were 
attached,  these  to  so  light  a  carriage  being  quite 
sufficient,  although  Ausonius  says  the  wealthy 
often  had  three  and  even  four  harnessed  up,  not 
because  such  were   absolutely  required  to   draw  cisium. 

it,  but  for  the  sake  of  show.  In  those  remote  times  almost  every 
wealthy  family  had  its  special  courier  or  messenger,  generally  selected 
from  their  slaves  or  other  dependants,  who  carried  their  messages 
either  on  horseback  or  in  a  cisium,  so  as  to  be  independent  of  any 
public  institution.  The  public  couriers  had  to  obtain  a  license  from 
the  government,  which  allowed  them  to  use  the  imperial  horses  and 
10 


146  BOMAN  WOBLD   Olf  WHEELS. 

vehicles ;  for  without  such  special  permission  no  one  could,  without 
incurring  a  penalty,  interfere  with  the  business  of  the  cisiarii.  As  a 
large  business  was  transacted  by  these  cisiarii,  it  involved  considerable 
capital,  and  therefore  contractors  were  selected  of  known  responsibility 
and  approved  business  habits  for  each  station,  bound,  under  certain 
rules,  to  supply  vehicles  and  animals  to  travelers,  also  to  carry  pack- 
ages and  letters.  To  protect  these  from  the  damaging  effects  of  the 
weather,  they  were  enclosed  in  the  l)ox  of  the  cisium. 

Ordinarily,  the  body  of  the  cisium  Av^as  fixed  to  the  frame  or  shafts, 
while  in  the  better  kind  it  was  sometimes  suspended  on  straps  or 
braces,  as  with  more  modern  nations  previous  to  the  invention  of 
springs.  Cicero  says  it  was  possible  to  write  in  them.^  Being  closed 
behind,  entrance  was  had  from  the  front,  the  driver  sitting  in  the 
vehicle  except  in  special  cases,  when  more  than  two  horses  were  used, 
when,  that  the  wealthy  or  aristocratic  might  not  be  disgraced  by 
sittinsf  beside  a  menial,  the  driver  was  mounted  on  a  third  horse,  all 
abreast,  holding  the  pole  horses  hj  reins.  The  wealthy  Komans  were 
not  indifferent  to  comfort  in  their  carriages,  so  they  had  them  provided 
with  cushions  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  cisiums  were  in  general 
use  hj  the  ladies,  although  there  Avas  an  exception  to  this  rule,  as 
will  be  observed,  for  besides  being  too  open  and  exposed  for  the  gen- 
tler sex,  no  doubt  prejudice  had  much  to  do  in  discountenancing  the 
practice,  as  the  cisium  Avas  known  as  "the  gallant's  carriage."  The 
young  and  gay  Komans  frequently  employed  them  in  their  nocturnal 
expeditions,  disguising  themselves  by  putting  on  a  pileiis,  or  cap, 
similar  to  that  Avorn  by  the  driver.  Cicero,  in  speaking  of  Marc 
Antony,  the  victim  of  Cleopatra's  charms,  says  that  on  one  occasion 
''he  drank  until  evening,  and  then  drove  quickly 
in  a  cisium  to  the  city  with  his  head  covered," 
that  he  might  not  be  recognized  by  the  public. 

Under  the  name  of  monachus  there  seems  to 

have  existed,  among  both  Greeks  and  Eomans, 

a  very  light   two-Avheeled   vehicle,   not   much 

'  ~"~     '"''       •  unlike  the  cisium  in  the  form  of  the  body.     Our 

engraving  is   copied  from  Montfaucon's  work, 

and  is  tiicrc  accompanied  by  a  Latin  inscription,  Avhich  goes  to  prove 

'  "Quaeclam  sunt,  qua3  possis  et  in  cisio  scribere."  —  Epist.  72. 


THE   MONACHUS,  BIEOTUM,  AND  ABCERA. 


147 


that  it  was  sculptured  on  a  slab  in  memory  of  a  distinguished  female, 
the  wife  of  some  wealthy  citizen  of  Eome.  It  reads  thus,  "Z>.  M. 
Nocturnio  nocturniano  Merocila  conjux  posuit,'''  and  is  accompanied 
by  a  portrait  of  a  lady,  doubtless  intended  to  represent  the  wife.  The 
vehicle  is  rounding  at 
the  back  and  very  low 
in  front,  so  as  to  furnish 
easy  access  to  the  pas- 
sengers, who  appear  to 
have  been  principally 
females.  It  was  evi- 
dently the  pony  phae- 
ton of  the  Koman  ladies. 

The  birotum  was  a 
small,  two- wheeled  ve- 
hicle, drawn  by  one 
horse,  with  a  comfort- 
able, leather -covered 
seat,  and  an  arrange- 
ment behind  for  carry- 
ing luggage.  It  was  of 
late  origin  and  contrived 
for  rapid  transit.  It 
was  never  introduced 
in  private  use,  but  kept 
at  the  post-stations  in 
the  time  of  Constantine, 
where  the  traveler  could 
choose  between  this  ve- 
hicle or  a  horse.  As 
it  was  intended  merely 
for  rapid  transit,  the 
law  forbade  to  carry 
more  than  six  hundred  pounds  of  luggage  on  it.  It  was  often  used  by 
the  government  for  their  couriers. 

There  is  no  Roman  vehicle  about  which  there  has  been  more  dispute 
than  the  arcera.  Adams,  in  his  "Roman  Antiquities,"  informs  us  that 
it  was  a  covered  wagon  or  cart,  used  for  carrying  the  old  and  infirm 


148 


BOMAN  WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


of  meaner  rank,  and  the  manner  in  Avhicli  this  is  told  leads  us  to  infer 
that  he  knew  nothing  about  it.  Beckman,  in  the  "  History  of  Inven- 
tions," says  that  "the  earliest  Roman  vehicle  on  record  is  the  arcera,i 
a  kind  of  covered  cart,  of  which  mention  was  made  in  the  Twelve 
Tables."     Ginzrot,  who  gives  us  the  copy  for  our  picture,  describes  it, 

on  what  authority 
we  cannot  tell,  as 
a  four-wheeled  ve- 
hicle, and  says,  "It 
was  a  soi-t  of  cov- 
ered carriage,  con- 
sisting of  a  long, 
coffin-like  box,  soft- 
ly lined,  in  which 
to  transport  sick 
^ ^  °^ ^^-  people."  The  bundle 

on  top  of  the  box,  he  tells  us,  "is  food  for  the  horses,"  —  information 
about  which  hano-s  some  doubt.  If  he  is  rio-ht  in  the  selection  of  his 
illustration,  it  must  have  been  a  sort  of  peddler's  wagon,  with  an  enclosed 
box  for  the  transportation  of  merchandise.  Beckman  further  says  that 
the  arcera  was  used  for  sick  and  infirm  persons,  but  if  such  was  the 
case  it  must  have  been  a  different  vehicle  from  the  one  here  shown. 
To  crown  all,  some  speculators  say  that  "  it  appears  to  have  been  em- 
ployed much  earlier  than  the  more  luxurious  lectica,  and  by  it  to  have 
been  brought  into  disuse." 

The  carrus-  was  the  name  of  a  cart  or  wain  that  seems  to  have  been, 
under  different  forms,  very  much  in  use  among  both  Romans  and 
Gauls  for  the  conveyance  of  heavy  baggage.  It  was  unsuited  for  car- 
rying passengers.  The  term  "  carrus,"  some  writers  tell  us,  is  not  a 
Latin  word,  and  would  have  us  believe  that  the  vehicle  under  this 


1  The  name  is  said  to  have  come  from  arcus,  a  roof,  the  top  of  the  box  being  roof- 
shaped,  or  arclied. 

2  Carrus  is  a  word  of  Gallic  origin,  -which  Ginzrot  says  should  read  '■'■karr  or  karre," 
inasmuch  as  the  Swiss  of  the  present  day,  descendants  of  the  ancient  Helvetians,  name 
their  wagons  Jcarren.  The  French,  in  some  sections  of  their  country,  as  in  Bui'gundy 
and  the  "Gold  Coast,"  where  the  primitive  wagon  of  the  Gallicaus  (called  ckar-a-hanc, 
a  wagon  provided  with  benches)  has  been  retained,  still  name  their  wagons  chariot-car, 
hence  we  find  cabriolet,  cart,  chariot,  etc.  With  the  Teutons  a  light  sporting  carriage 
was  called  a  karrette,  and  a  show  or  parade  wagon,  karratsch.    In  Teutonic  ballads  of  the 


CABIiUS,    USED  FOR    WAE  PURPOSES. 


149 


name  is  not  exactly  of  Roman  invention,  although  nnicli  in  nsc  in  the 
army  in  Gaul  under  Julius  C?esar,  who,  in  his  "  Commentaries,"  calls 
them  "  plaustri,"  and  employed  them  in  bringing  up  the  rear-guard 
and  military  equipments  of  the  army.  Hence,  they  merely  answered 
the  purpose  of  munition  or  baggage  wagons  to  the  forces  (army) ,  and 
were  designated  by  Caesar  as  impedimenta  or  hindrances,  in  which 
term  is  included  both 
the  vehicle  and  the 
bago^age.  When  Cee- 
sar  made  allusion  to 
the  train  of  women 
and  children  in  the 
wake  of  "  the  impedi- 
menta,'''' he  invariably 
mentioned  the  rheda 
in  connection  with  the 
cart.  This  rheda,  as 
will  be  hereafter 
shown,  was  quite  a 
different  sort  of  car- 
riage. In  it  the  "bar- 
barians," under  which  tenn  the  Romans  included  all  foreigners,  took 
their  wives  and  children  with  them  to  the  l)attle-field,  these  always 
following  the  army  in  the  rhedas,  which  at  night  were  so  placed  as  to 
afford  them  the  protection  of  a  redoubt,  under  the  impression  that,  by 
havino:  their  loved  ones  alone:,  the  soldiers  would  be  incited  to  fresh 
deeds  of  valor. 

Our  illustration  is  taken  from  the  Pillar  of  Marcus  Aurelius  at 
Rome.  The  wheels,  which  are  rather  low,  have  in  each  but  four 
spokes,  and  the  box  or  body,  of  a  parallelogram  shape,  appears  to 
have   been   paneled   with  boards,   and  ornamented   with    scroll-work 


The   Carrus. 


chivalrous  age  we  frequently  meet  with  the  word.  Nowadays  (1817)  au  old-fashioned 
lumbering  vehicle  is  derisively  styled  an  old  Tcarrette.  In  the  Breton  language  the 
carrus  is  called  kar,  and  in  the  Chaldaic  tongue,  carron.  With  the  English  people,  a 
karren  is  a  cart  or  wagon.  Giuzrot's  Wagen  unci  Fahrwerke,  Vol.  I,  ch.  xvi.  Caesar, 
according  to  Latin  custom,  retained  the  word,  giving  it  a  Roman  termination.  Eabri- 
cus,  in  his  BihUo(jraphia  Antiquaria,  ridiculously  traces  the  origin  of  the  term  "  carrus  " 
to  '■'■Quadrus,  quasi  a  quaUior  rotis." 


150  ROMAN  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

painted  thereon.  The-  inside  space  is  filled  with  bucklers  and  various 
warlike  armor.     This  carrus  is  drawn  by  mules. 

The  Helvetians,  according  to  Caesar,  on  setting  out  on  their  expedi- 
tion against  the  Gauls,  provided  among  other  things,  by  purchase,  "a 
great  number  of  carri."  ^  These  were  designed  for  carrying  heavy 
burdens,  as  is  evident  from  the  construction.  From  this,  however,  it 
is  not  to  be  inferred  that  the  Eoman  non-combatants  were  not  al- 
lowed to  avail  themselves  of  this  vehicle  for  the  conveyance  of  their 
ammunition  and  burdens,  only  that  they  were  more  generally  used 
abroad  than  among  the  Romans,  with  whom  the  plaustrum  was  more 
in  favor. 

A  number  of  words,  such  as  carruca,  carrheda  or  carrete,  carpentum, 
and  others  probably  took  their  origin  from  carrus;  and  although  in  the 
course  of  time  the  shape  differed  somewhat  from  that  of  the  carrus,  yet 
they  no  doubt  resembled  it  at  first  more  closely.  In  the  monastic 
archives  of  the  "Middle  Latin  Times,"  the  words  carrus  /unarms  are 
frequently  found,  meaning  a  low  sort  of  bricklayer's  cart.  In  quoting 
the  word  carrus,  Matthew  Paris  says,  "None  of  our  baUiren  nor  vice- 

^  "  Jumentorum  et  carrorum  quam  maximum  mimerum  coemere."  —  De  Bello  Gal- 
lico,  B.  I,  ch.  3.  Some  modern  commentators,  among  whom  is  Anthou,  translate 
carrorum  "wagons,"  but  gives  us  two  forms  of  the  nominative,  carrus  and  carrum, 
admitting  that  the  word  is  of  Celtic  origin,  the  neuter  carrum  prevailing  in  its  later 
Latinity.  He  adds,  "The  word  .  .  .  denotes  a  kind  of  four-wheeled  wagon."  — 
Notes  to  Anthon's  CcBsar,  in  loc.  Ginzrot,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  much  informa- 
tion, says,  that  "the  carrus  was  not  a  four-wheeled  carriage,  as  some  are  inclined 
to  believe,  may  be  gleaned  from  the  Codex  Theodosius  de  Cursu  Publico,  reading  thus  : 
The  two-wheeled  cart,  the  hirota,  must  not  be  laden  with  over  six  hundred  pounds' 
weight;  and  further  {Leg.  47),  where  it  is  enjoined  to  load  the  body  of  the  rheda  with 
a  thousand  pounds,  and  the  carrus  with  six  hundred  pounds,  no  more  nor  less.  We 
should  indeed  judge  rashly  were  we  to  affirm  that  for  carrying  six  hundred,  more  than 
two  beasts  of  burden  and  one  four-wheeled  wagon  were  required.  Three  hundred 
pounds  is  a  light  load  for  a  single  ox  or  mule  to  pull,  since  any  beast  of  burden  may 
conveniently  carry  that  much  on  his  back.  Carts  were  not  only  brought  into  requisi- 
tion in  war  times,  but  likewise  in  times  of  peace,  on  the  roads,  in  the  public  service, 
to  bring  up  ammunition  for  the  troops,  or  the  baggage  of  certain  functionaries  who 
were  entitled  to  a  car  like  the  above.  In  order,  however,  to  prevent  an  abuse  on  the 
part  of  this  immunity  to  the  detriment  of  the  indigent  peasantry  (they  generally  over- 
loaded them) ,  the  weight  of  the  load  which  they  were  permitted  to  take  with  them  was 
fixed  by  statute,  —  a  step  resulting  in  the  prevention  of  arbitrary  measures  on  the  part 
of  those  favored  wayfarers,  and  in  enabling  the  beasts  of  burden  to  get  along  without 
injury  to  themselves  on  the  very  worst  kind  of  roads." —  Ginzrot's  Wagen  und  Falir- 
werke,  Vol.  I,  ch.  xvi. 


BOM  AW  CAREUS  FOR  LIQUIDS. 


151 


comes,  or  any  one  else  shall  employ  the  carreia  for  riding  purposes  "  ; 
and  in  the  Magna  Charta  of  King  John,  Art.  20,  a  passage  in  Latin 
reads  thus :  "  iVe  vicecome  vel  ballirus  7'egis  vel  aliquid  alius  capiat 
equos  vel  carreltas  alicujus  libera  hominis  pro  cariagio  faciendo,  nisi 
volutate  ipsius." 

These  carri  were  perfectly  well  adapted  to  the  narrow  defiles  of  the 
country  (now  Switzerland)  inhabited  by  the  Helvetians,  for  which 
very  reason  they  were  provided  with  a  narrow  track  or  gage  to  enable 
them  to  pass  with  more  safety  the  numerous  mountain-passes,  for  it  is 
evidently  much  easier  to  construct  vehicles  to  suit  the  condition  of  the 
roads  than  it  is  to  make  the  latter  conform  to  the  construction  of  the 
vehicles.  Julius  Csesar  often  speaks  of  those  "  viis  angustis,"  or  narrow 
passes,  where  one  cart  could  scarcely  pass  another,  —  a  fact  which  is 
more  minutely  illustrated  in  his  "De  Bello  Gallico,"  B.  I,  ch.  vi,  and 
in  his  "De  Bello  Hispan.,"  ch.  vi,  showing  that  a  wide  track  would 
have  been  not  inconvenient  only,  but  quite  impracticable.  Csesar 
says,  in  one  place  we  have  referred  to,  that  "the  road  leading  through 
the  country  of  the  Sequani,  betwixt  Mount  Jura  and  the  river  Rhone, 
was  so  narrow  and  difficult  to  travel  that  scarcely  a  single  carrus  was 
able  to  pass  over  it."  i 

The  engraving  represents  a  carrus  laden  with  barrels  lying  on  cross- 
beams or  rafters,  the  wheels  having  six  spokes  in  them.  This  vehicle 
is  drawn  by  a  yoke 


of  oxen,  the  yoke 
itself  being  orna- 
mented at  the  ends 
with  carved  imitation 
of  a  lion's  head.  A 
well-preserved  figure 
of  this  cart  is  found 
on  the  Pillar  of  Tra- 
jan. Such  were  prob- 
ably employed  in  car- 
rying liquids  on  war-  Carrus  for  Liquids. 
like  expeditions.  It  is  well  known  that  wine  and  vinegar,  so  emi- 
nently wholesome  in  hot  climates,  were  served  out  to  the  Roman  sol- 


Julius  Caesar's  Commentarii  De  Bello  Gallico,  B.  I,  ch.  vi. 


152 


ROMAN   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


diers,  along  with  oil,  to  season  their  vegetables.  Sometimes,  as  is  seen 
on  the  Pillar  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  body  of  the  carrus  was  formed 
of  plank  and  filled  with  barrels,  with  leather  pipes  contrived  for  draw- 
ing off  the  liquids,  and  these  were  so  skillfully  sewed  that  no  liquid 
ever  oozed  through  the  sides  thereof. 

The  carrus  differed  from  the  plaustrum  in  the  following  particulars  : 
the  box  or  form  could  not  be  removed,  as  in  the  former  case,  but  was 
fastened  upon  the  axle-tree  ;  it  lacked  the  broad  flooring  of  planks  or 
boards,  which  served  as  a  receptacle  for  certain  commodities  when  the 
sides  were  removed ;  the  wheels  were  higher,  as  with  the  common 
Roman  plaustrum;  these  were,  moreover,  spoked,  and  not  solid  like 
the  tympana,  which  were  impracticable  in  mountainous  regions.  If 
this  were  not  so,  says  a  modern  writer,  Caesar  would  certainly  mention 
the  plaustrum  now  and  then,  or  the  pauc-wheel ;  but  nowhere  in  his 
work  on  the  War  in  Gaul  do  we  meet  with  any  allusion  to  this 
subject. 

Another  vehicle  was  by  the  Romans  called  the  carrus  clabularius,  a 
stave-wagon,  as  shown  in  the  annexed  illustration,  intended  for  the 
transportation  of  merchandise  in  commercial  towns.    This,  for  the  age, 

was  quite  an  ingenious 
piece  of  mechanism, 
and  would  not  be  de- 
spised were  it  again 
adopted  for  business 
purposes  in  our  time. 
Many  points  in  this 
vehicle  are  worthy  of 
note.  The  body  is 
admirably  contrived 
for  showing  off  the  contents,  which  in  this  instance  consist  of  balc::^ 
goods.  An  arrangement  by  which  the  reach  was  lengthened  or  short- 
ened as  occasion  demanded  is  another  feature  of  interest.  Here,  too, 
is  seen  the  sway-bar,  so  important  in  a  business  wagon,  and  in  addition 
to  all  these,  wheels  of  equal  size  front  and  rear,  showing  that  the 
Romans  were  far  in  advance  of  our  modern  Adamses,  who  discourse 
eloquently  for  equirotals  in  every  kind  of  four-wheeled  vehicle. 

Plaustrum  was  the  name  given  among  the  Romans  to  all  kinds  of 
farming  carts  and  wagons,  whether  on  two  or  four  wheels.     Strictly 


Carrus  Clabularius. 


PLAUSTRI  OB   CARTS   OF  THE  ROMANS.  153 

speaking,  however,  it  applied  more  particularly  to  open  carts,  consist- 
ing simply  of  polo  and  axle.  At  both  ends  of  the  latter  revolved 
tympanis,  or  pane- wheels,^  made  of  solid  wood,  as  seen  in  the  next 
engraving.  Some  tell  us  that  the  axle  in  these  vehicles  revolved  with 
the  wheels,  and  that  these  axles  returned  in  check-pieces  or  sockets, 
called  arbuscidoi.  On  inspecting  the  designs  extant,  we  find  many 
wheels  fastened  on  the  axle-trees  by  linchpins,  and  some  few  without. 
We  conclude  from  this  circumstance  that  both  modes  —  revolving  on 
the  axle-tree  and  M"zY/i  it  —  were  in  practice.  The  entire  construction 
appears  to  have  been  of  the  most  primitive  kind.^ 

On  the  Triumphal  Arch  of  Lucius  Sept.  Severus,  at  Kome,  several 
carts  are  represented  with  tympanum  wheels,  some  of  which  are  drawn 
by  mules,  others  by  horses.  Curtius  calls  this  vehicle  vulgatum  usu, 
or  the  commonly  used  plaustrum,  and  Valerius  Maximus  the  plauslrum 
sordidum  (dirty  plaustrum) ,  for  the  plaustrum  ^  was  used  for  carting 
manure,  stone,  wood,  hay,  oats,  and  many  other  things,  without  put- 
ting them  in  a  box,  by  simply  filling  a  basket,  which  was  then  set  on 
a  board  or  platform.  For  this  reason  it  was  somewhat  dangerous  to 
walk  beside  a  loaded  plaustrum  on  rough  roads.  Hence  Juvenal  satir- 
ically says,  "If  the  plaustrum  that  carries  the  Ligurian  stone  upsets 
and  throws  a  mountain  of  stones  over  the  crowd,  what  remains  of  man 
to  be  seen?"  To  avoid  accident,  the  Emperor  Adrian  prohibited  the 
driving  of  overloaded  plaustra  through  the  streets  of  the  city. 

Our  picture,  taken  from  a  bass-relief  in  Rome  by  Luc.  Petus, 
appears  to  represent  a  hay-cart,  the  hay  being  stored  in  a  sort  of 
basket  or  crate  of  splints  interwoven  with  each  other.  This  box  was 
set  on  the  frame  answering  for  the  body,  so  as  to  be  easily  removed 
when  required.     The  wheels  were  solid,  and  strengthened  by  strips 

'  "Hinc  radios  triv^re  rotis,  hinc  tympana  plaustris  agricolse."  —  Virgil,  Geor.,  II, 
444.     This  wheel  was  called  tympanam  because  it  resembled  a  drum.     See  p.  19,  note. 

^  Carts  of  a  very  primitive  kind  are  still  found  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal.  The 
axles  of  these  carts  being  seldom  greased,  the  squeaking  noise  they  produce  can  be 
heard  for  a  mile  away.  Six  or  more  oxen  are  often  required  to  start  them,  where  two 
would  do  the  same  work  were  they  properly  built.  A  modern  author  declares  that 
"prejudice  overthrows  good  sense  in  such  countries."  The  noise  created  by  these 
squeaking  machines  is  made  the  subject  of  satire  in  the  works  of  Horace.    {Sat.,  VI.) 

•'  Among  the  rustic  Sabines,  the  au  was  pronounced  o,  as  in  plostrum  for  plaustrum, 
which  Mestrius  Florus,  on  a  certain  occasion,  endeavored  to  correct  in  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  Vitellius.  "  Mestrium  Florura  consularem,  admonitus  ab  eo  plaustra  potius 
quara  plostra  dicenda,  die  postero  Flaurum  salutavit." —  Suet.,  in  Vesp.,  ch.  xxii. 


154 


BOMAN  WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


•PLAUSTKUl 


of  boards,  which  were  sometimes  shod  with  iron  strakes,  called  canthus; 
and  although  the  vehicle  appears  to  have  been  a  clumsily  constructed 

machine,  yet  it 
was  often  used 
for  hunting  pur- 
poses, the  arms, 
provisions,  and 
equipments  of  the 
hunter,  as  well  as 
the  game,  being 
carried  thereon. 
When  baskets 
were  used,  they 
were    secured   to 

the  platform  either  by  cords  or  between  four  stakes,  although  these 
last  are  not  shown  in  our  illustration.  These  were  generally  drawn 
by  oxen,  as  other  carts,  although  occasionally  mules  were  employed. 

The  engraving,  also  copied  by  Luc.  Petus,  in  Rome,  from  a  bass- 
relief,  represents  a  wine-cart,  on  the  platform  of  which  stands  a 
basket ;  inside  of  this  is  placed  a  rick,  on  which  is  supported  the  bag, 
made  of  hide,  to  hold 
the  wine  and  olive  oil 
carried  therein.  These 
were  commonly  goat- 
skins, with  the  hair 
side  turned  in.  The 
rick  or  wooden  ladder 
was  designed  to  sup- 
port the  bag  in  trans- 
portation, and  the 
basket  or  other  ves- 
sel to  catch  and  hold 
the  liquid  in  case  the  bag  should  accidentally  burst.  The  dog,  whose 
office  was  to  drive,  was  considered  indispensable  when  oxen  were 
employed. 

One  of  the  uses  of  the  plaustrum  in  war  was  the  removal  of  the 
wounded  to  a  place  of  safety.  Caasar  employed  them  in  carrying  his 
wounded  soldiers  to  Adrumentum  after  battle.     They  were  likewise 


Roman   Wine-cart. 


FLAUSTPai,  HOW  EMPLOYED.  155 

employed  in  removing  the  dead  in  the  time  of  a  fearful  pestilence  that 
jDre vailed  in  Eome  under  the  rule  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  Great  numbers 
of  these  vehicles  were  employed  at  funerals,  as  we  learn  from  Horace, i 
where  "  funeral-horns  and  trumpets  "  blown  by  the  musicians  mounted 
on  the  plaustra  created  much  confusion.  Each  funeral  was  attended, 
sometimes  by  as  many  as  seventy  plaustra,  carrying  offerings  and 
other  things  necessary  in  such  ceremonies  where  the  bodies  were  burnt, 
such  as  small  animals,  tapestry,  ornaments  for  the  funeral  pile,  the 
salves,  fumigating  articles,  vases,  etc.^ 

The  plaustrum,  common  as  it  was,  was  nevertheless  sometimes  used 
to  carry  passengers.  Livy  says  that  when  Eome  was  taken  by  the 
Gauls,  Lucius  Albinius  fled  from  the  city  with  his  wife  and  children  in 
one  of  these  vehicles.  The  vestal  virgins  on  this  occasion  likewise, 
after  hiding  a  portion  of  the  sacred  vessels,  fled  across  the  Sublician 
bridge  to  the  Janiculum,  meeting  in  their  flight  the  Eoman  named 
above,  who  had  preceded  them,  every  non-combatant  leaving  the  city. 
But  this  L.  Albinius,  although  a  common  citizen,  had  a  proper  esti- 
mate of  the  difl'erence  between  secular  and  sacred  things,  and  thought 
it  impious  that  he  and  his  family  should  be  seen  riding  in  a  vehicle, 
while  priests  and  priestesses  walked,  carrying  sacred  things.  He  there- 
fore ordered  his  wife  and  children  to  get  out,  and  allowed  the  virgins 
to  sit  in  the  plaustrum  while  he  drove  them  to  Caere,  their  place  of 
destination. 3  Livy  says  expressly  in  the  plaustrum,  not  on,  evidently 
showing  that  this  vehicle  had  several  seats,  from  which  we  conclude 
that  his  wife  and  children  could  all  sit  in  it ;  and  as  it  was  not  per- 
mitted L.  Albinius  to  be  seated  alongside  of  the  virgins,  it  follows 
that  he  was  obliged  to  walk  and  drive. 

There  was  another  plaustrum  covered  all  around  with  untanned  ox- 


'  "He  with  his  loud  voice  would  have  surpassed  in  crying  the  noise  of  two  hundred 
plaustra  meeting  at  these  funerals  in  the  market,  yea,  their  funeral-horns  and  trum- 
pets." —  Horace,  Sat.,  VI.  "The  notorious  Messalina,  wife  of  Claudius,  in  his  absence 
at  Ostia,  having  allied  herself  to  Silius  in  marriage,  when  afterwards  the  emperor 
ordered  her  apprehension,  after  walking  the  entire  length  of  the  city,  got  into  a  cart 
employed  in  carrying  refuse  from  the  gardens,  making  her  way  to  Ostia,  where  she 
was  dispatched  unpitied  in  disgrace."  —  Tacitus,  Ann.,  XII,  32. 

'  The  body  of  the  deceased  was  laid  out  in  the  best  robe,  and  carried  to  the  funeral 
pile  or  tomb  to  the  sound  of  music.  This  ancient  pagan  practice  appears  to  be  imi- 
tated by  the  Irish  in  our  time. 

^  Livy's  Hist.  Borne,  B.  V,  ch.  xl. 


156  BOMAN   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

hides.  Such  u  vehicle  is  supposed  to  have  been  employed  by  Lucius 
Turius  to  drive  the  vestals  to  the  capitol.  Valerius  Maximus^  tells  us 
that  this  rural  and  nasty  (sordidum)  plaustrum,  which  was  just  of  the 
right  width,  became  in  consequence  as  much  celebrated,  perhaps  more, 
than  the  triumphal  car.  Other  proofs  might  be  adduced  to  the  same 
import. 2 

The  Romans  had  besides  a  plaustrum  on  four  wheels  {plaustra 
majora) ,  which  carried  a  large  number  of  people.  Sometimes  these 
passengers  were  not  of  the  quietest  class,  according  to  Valerius  Maxi- 
mus,  who  says,  "  The  flute-players,  who  had  emigrated  to  Tibur,  and 
refused  to  return  to  Rome,  were  brought  back  to  the  city  in  the 
plaustra  when  wine  and  the  want  of  sleep  had  made  them  intoxi- 
cated."^ This  seems  to  have  been  a  covered  plaustrum,  for  Plutarch 
distinctly  says,  "  He  persuaded  the  flute-players  to  mount  a  plaustrum 
covered  all  around  with  hides.''^^  This  of  course  is  understood  to 
apply  to  the  platform  or  frame,  and  not  to  a  top  or  covering.  History 
tells  us  that  the  Scythians  and  other  nomadic  people  used  a  kind  of 
plaustrum  covered  over  with  hides, ^  but  the  Romans  did  not  imitate 
this,  as  elsewhere  seen. 

PlostelliLm  is  the  diminutive  in  Latin  oi plaustrum,  and  represents  a 

little  wain  or  cart,  with  which  children  amused  themselves  in  ancient 

times,   as   appears  from  Roman  writers. '^      The 

engraving  represents  a  wain  of  this  kind,  drawn 

by   two    goats,    attended    by   a   laughing   boy, 

doubtless  much  happier  than  Caesar  amid  all  his 

conquests.     In  this  instance  the  basket  is  loaded 

with  grapes,  —  a  practice,  let  us  fondly  hope, 

plostellum.  which  was  not  very  often  employed,  on  the  score 

of  morals.     We  shall  meet  with  this  vehicle  again  in  another  shape. 

Another  vehicle,  known  as  the  curriculus,  diminutive  of  currus,  was 
likewise  used  as  a  plaything  for  the  younger  Romans.  A  representa- 
tion of  this  four-wheeled  machine  is  shown  in  the  engraving,  drawn  by 
a  single  pony.  The  body  (box)  seems  to  have  been  of  very  simple 
construction,  evidently  formed  of  boards  set  off  with  moldings.     The 

'  Valerius  Maximus,  B.  I.  ^  Quintus  Curtius,  B.  V,  cli.  xii. 

=*  Valerius  Maximus,  B.  II.  ■•  Plutarch,  Quccstii  Bom. 

*  See  the  illustration,  "  Scythian  House  on  Wheels,"  Chapter  VII,  ultra. 
^  "Eo  missa  plaustra  jumentaque  alia."  —  Livy. 


THE   CURBICULUS,   OR   CHILDREN'S   WAGON. 


157 


dog  accompanying  it  is  apparently  in  accord  with  his  juvenile  masters, 
and  all  well  pleased  Avith  the  journey  they  arc  undertaking. 


The  Cukriculus. 

The  2:)egma  has  been  by  a  modern  writer,  we  think  without  sufficient 
authority,  classed  among  Koman  vehicles.  It  was  probably  nothing 
more  than  an  improvised  triumphal  car  for  public  pageants  or  theat- 
rical displays.  Pliny  mentions  these  machines  by  saying,  "  Caius 
^rinceps  in  circo  jpegma  duxit,  in  quo  fuere  argenti  jjondo  cxxiii."  i 

The  currus,  or  chariot,  as  among  other  contemporary  nations,  was  a 
very  important  vehicle  with  the  Romans,  but  differing  materially  from 
the  arma  of  the  Greeks.  As  a  warlike  instrument  it  was  in  very  little 
repute,  in  fact  was  held  in  contempt  by  the  soldiery  when  opposed  to 
them  in  the  ranks  of  an  enemy,  even  when  armed  with  scythes.  At 
the  battle  of  Thurium,  where  Sylla  defeated  Archelaus,  one  of  the 
generals  of  Mithridates,  the  soldiers  in  the  Roman  army  feared  them 
so  little  that  after  the  first  onset,  in  which  no  injury  was  done  (as 
though  they  had  merely  been  interested  spectators  in  a  chariot-race), 
they  held  them  in  such  derision  that  they  cried  out  lustily  for  the 
enemy  to  scud  on  more.^  From  a  passage  in  Caesar's  "  Commentaries 
on  the  War  in  Gaul,"  we  infer  that  war-chariots  were  a  novelty  to  his 


'  Pliuy,  XXXIII,  xvi. 

^  Livy  says  the  soldiers  on  this  occasion  opened  their  ranks  and  let  the  chai'iots 
pass  through,  thus  evading  all  danger. 


158  BOMAN    WOBLD  ON  WHEELS. 

army,  and  Livy  tells  us  that,  on  the  occasion  referred  to,  "the  enemy, 
mounted  on  chariots  and  cars,  made  towards  them  with  such  a  terrible 
noise,  from  the  tramping  of  the  horses  and  the  rolling  of  the  wheels, 
as  affrighted  the  horses  of  the  Romans,  unaccustomed  to  such  opera- 
tions." ^  Indeed,  a  war-chariot  taken  in  Britain  was  afterwards  exhib- 
ited in  a  triumphal  procession  at  Rome  as  a  great  curiosity. 

Although  war-chariots  figure  more  frequently  in  the  works  of  the 
Latin  writers  than  they  do  in  their  armies,  yet  we  must  not  therefore 
necessarily  conclude  that  chariots  were  unknown  to  the  people  of  that 
nation.  In  the  triumphal  processions  of  the  victors  they  occupied  a 
very  prominent  place.  One  lasting  for  the  space  of  three  days,  given 
to  Paullus  iEmilius  in  honor  of  his  victories  over  Perseus,  showed  over 
two  hundred  and  fifty  chariots  and  a  great  number  of  wagons  carrying 
the  spoils  taken  from  the  Macedonians  in  battle.  The  whole  story 
is  told  from  Plutarch  further  on  in  this  chapter.  In  Kenneth's 
"  Roman  Antiquities  "  will  be  found  a  plate  representing  this  pageant, 
whereon  are  depicted  several  varieties  of  the  Roman  chariot.  Chariots 
were  distinguished  as  sejuges,  seplemjuges,  decemjuges,  etc.,  according 
to  the  number  of  horses  attached  to  them;  and  also  known  as  bigas, 
rhedas,  and  currus,  according  to  the  uses  to  which  they  were  assigned. 
They  seldom  carried  more  than  two  persons,  both  standing,  and  were 
always  drawn  with  the  horses  harnessed  abreast.^ 

The  chariot-races  among  the  Romans,  as  with  the  Grecians,  were 
matters  of  deep  interest.     The  chariots  used  were  generally  light,  two- 


'  "Genus  hoc  est  ex  essedis  pugnse  [inter  Britaniam]  :  primo  per  omnes  partes 
perequitaut,  et  tela  conjiciunt,  atqae  ipso  terrore  equorum,  et  strepitu  rotarnm,  ordi- 
nes  plerumque  perturbaut ;  et,  cum  se  inter  equitum  turmas  insinuaverint,  ex  essedis 
desiliunt,  et  pedibus  proeliantur.  Aurigse  interim  paulatim  ex  praalio  excedunt,  atque 
ita  curru  se  collocant,  ut,  si  illi  a  multitudine  liostium  premautur,  expeditum  ad  suos 
receptum  habeant."  —  C.  Julii  C^sariis,  Commentarii  de  Bella  Gallico,  B.  IV, 
ch.  33. 

*  Altliougli  we  nowhere  read  that  the  Romans  used  chariots  in  battle,  yet  it  is  on 
record  that  Domitian  erected  many  magniflceut  gates  and  arches,  which  were  sur- 
mounted by  figures  of  chariots  drawn  by  four  horses,  and  other  triumphal  monuments 
in  different  quarters  of  the  city,  so  that  a  wag,  in  Greek,  wrote  on  one  of  the  arches, 
JnnEi,  "It  is  enough."  "Janos  acusque  cum  quadrigis  et  insignibus  triumphorum 
per  regiones  urbis,  tantos  ac  tot  exstruxit:  ut  cuidam  grace  inscriptum  sit  arcui 
Apkei."  —  Suet,  in  Domit.,  ch.  13.  According  to  Apuleius,  iEmilianus  Strabo,  the 
Roman  proconsul  to  Carthage,  "had  everywhere  in  that  city  erected  by  the  people 
etiucstriau  statues,  with  chariots  of  four  and  six  horses."  —  Florida,  xvi. 


CHARIOT  FROM  THE    VATICAN  MUSEUM.  159 

wheeled  bigas  and  qpiadrigas,  made  narrow,  with  just  sufficient  room 
or  space  for  the  charioteer  (^auriga)  to  stand  in,  and  which,  never 
being  designed  for  any  other  purpose,  were  built  so  very  light  that  a 
man  could  easily  carry  one  on  his  shoulders.  The  body  was  commonly 
basket  or  wicker-work,  or  else  consisted  of  a  bottom  frame,  with  an 
iron  railing  all  around  covered  with  leather,  the  iron  railing  reaching 
as  high  as  the  knees  of  the  driver,  whose  movements  had  to  be  free 
and  unimpeded  by  anything  on  the  sides.  The  body  was  left  un- 
trimmed,  except  in  front,  where  the  knees  of  the  driver  touched  it. 
All  the  bodies  of  such  chariots  as  had  railings  had  the  lower  portions 
stuffed,  and  the  top  edges  and  sides  of  the  railings  puffed  (trimmed) 
with  leather,  to  secure  the  driver  against  injury,  should  such  arise 
from  sudden  joltings  or  other  causes.  The  rail  (antyx)  was  looked 
upon  l)y  ancient  authors  as  a  very  important  part  of  a  body,  who  there- 
fore taught  that  it  should  be  made  much  thicker  than  the  sides  of  the 
body  to  which  it  was  attached.  This,  for  greater  security,  was  often 
supplied  with  plates  of  ivory,  bronze,  and  sometimes  the  more  precious 
metals.  Among  the  Eomans  the  axle-tree  {axis)  is  supposed  to  have 
been  made  of  beech,  ilex,  ash,  or  elm.i 

An  ancient  Roman  chariot,  in  bronze,  is  preserved  in  the  Vatican 
Museum  at  Rome,  from  which,  among  other  things,  we  find  that  the 
axle  was  fastened  to  the  body  by  bolts 
with  nuts,  as  with  us,  except  that  they  are 
used  in  connection  with  scrolls  of  an  orna- 
mental pattern,  placed  between  the  body 
and  wheels.  Here  we  find  the  wheel 
turned  on  the  axle,  as  among  us.  This 
wheel  had  a  hub  (^modiolus)  of  some  tough 
wood,  and  was  banded  with  iron.  This 
hub  seems  to  be  extravagantly  long,  after 
tho  fashion  of  olden  times.  The  spokes 
{radii)  were  generally  either  six  or  eight  ^^^'^^  chariot. 

in  number,  very  rarely  ten.  The  felloes  or  rim  (apsis)  was  formed 
of  four  pieces,  but  whether  bent  or  "  worked  out "  by  tho  Roman 
mechanic  is  an  unsettled  question,  although  most  prol3al)ly  worked 
out.      The  tire    (canthus)    was  put   on   in  pieces   or  sections   of  the 

»  See  Pliny's  Nat.  Hist.,  B.  XVI,  84,  etc. 


160 


BOM  AN   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


Front   View   of   Roman 
Chariot. 


"strake"  kind,  when  made  of  metal.  This  undoubtedly  was  often 
made  out  of  wooden  strips  bent  to  the  shape  of  the  rim,  like  our  half- 
rims,  answering  the  same  purpose  as  the 
contrivance  to  the  Egyptian  wheel  on  page 
60.  Poetical  license,  as  has  been  seen  in 
these  pages,  has  often  manufactured  tires  out 
of  the  precious  metals,^  but  such  must  have 
been  too  precious  for  practical  use.  The  pole 
(^pertica)  was  usually  secured  at  the  back 
end  to  the  axle-tree.  Homer  says  that  Juno's 
chariot  had  a  silver  pole,  but  those  of  mor- 
tals, we  opine,  were  made  simply  of  wood, 
what  kind  of  wood  we  are  not  informed. 
The  yoke  (Jugum)  was  attached  to  the  necks  of  the  two  central  horses 
when  more  than  two  were  harnessed  to  a  chariot  (a  quadriga,  for 
instance),  as  was  often  done.  We  would  remark,  en  passant,  that  the 
jugum  among  the  Romans  was  a  significant  emblem  of  complete 
humiliation.  Whenever  they  obtained  a  victory  over  an  enemy,  they 
forced  the  conquered  to  pass  under 
it,  in  token  of  absolute  subjection. 
Several  instances  of  this  will  be 
found  in  the  Commentaries  of  Cse- 
sar  and  other  Latin  authors,  where 
the  subdued  were  forced  to  under- 
go this  humiliating  ordeal.  The 
unfortunate  enemies  of  Rome  were 
supposed,  in  this  degrading  pro- 
cess, to  have  been  as  efi*ectually  Roman  yokes. 
yoked  to  the  Roman  Republic  as  were  their  beasts  of  burden  to 
plows  or  chariots.  When  these  afterwards  revolted,  they  were  said 
to  have  shaken  off  the  yoke,  —  by  this  act  proving  that  men  have  not 
always  been  as  completely  sul)jected  as  have  been  the  lower  animals. 
The  wheels  of  the  biiras  ~  —  two-horse  chariots  —  for  racing  among 


'  "  Aurea  summse  curvatura  rotte." — -Ovid,  Met.,  II,  108. 

2  The  Romans  called  such  coins  as  were  stamped  with  the  figure  of  a  chariot  drawn 
by  two  horses,  hirjatl;  those  with  four  horses,  quadrigatl.  Some  of  these  earlier  coin- 
ages, being  much  purer,  were  highly  popular  in  the  German  provinces.  —  Tacit.,  Ger., 
eh.  vi. 


CHARIOT  FOE   THE   ClliCUS  MAXIMUS. 


IGl 


the  Eomans  were  made  very  low,  and,  like  the  axle-trees  and  poles, 
made  of  Avood,  and  slightly  ironed,  whilst  the  Grecian  bigas  had  both 
axles  and  wheels  made  of  iron  or  brass,  all  carefully  constructed  and 
extremely  light.  In  order  to  avoid  upsetting,  these  light  vehicles  had 
axles  very  long,  making  a  broad  track.  There  was  no  profusion  or 
rich  ornamentation  on  the  plainer  or  common  kind ;  but  such  bigas  as 
were  used  iji  the  circus  by  emperors  and  distinguished  princes  were 
remarkable  for  artistic  workmanship  and  splendor,  and  were  covered 
over  Avith  gold,  silver,  ivory,  and  an  infinity  of  precious  stones.  A 
chariot  of 
this  kind  is 
supposed  to 
be  shoAvn  in 
the    annexed 


engravma;. 
This  vehicle 
has  but  six 
spokes  in  the 
wheel,  beau- 
tifully round- 
e  d  and 

formed.  The 
raves  have 
had  consider- 
able artistic 
study  ex- 
pended thereon. 

panying  scroll-Avork,  shows  that  it  represents  a  chariot  of  no  common 
build  and  of  no  mean  design. 

The  races  in  the  Circus  Maximus '  at  Rome  in  diiferent  seasons  of  the 


ROUS   Chariot. 


The  gladiatorial  scene  on  the  panel,  with  the  accom- 


*  The  Circus  Maximus  —  so  called  because  it  was  the  largest  in  Rome  —  was  rudely 
constructed  of  timber  by  Lucius  Tarquinus  Priscus  (Y.  R.  138),  and  subsequently 
enlarged  and  improved  with  the  growing  fortunes  of  the  Republic,  until  under  the 
Emperors  it  became  a  most  superb  edifice.  Julius  Ctesar  extended  and  surrounded  it 
with  a  canal  ten  feet  deep  and  as  many  broad,  to  protect  the  spectators  against  danger 
from  the  chariots  during  the  races.  Claudius  rebuilt  the  carceres  with  marble,  and 
gilded  the  metce.  This  vast  center  of  attraction,  in  the  games  of  which  religion,  poli- 
tics, and  amusement  were  combined,  was,  according  to  Pliny,  three  stadia,  or  six  hun- 
dred and  tweuty-flve  feet  long,  and  over  two  hundred  feet  broad,  holding  two  hundred 
11 


162  BOM  AN  WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 

year  were  divided  into  four  factions :  the  Prasina,  Russata,  Alba  or 
Albata,  and  the  Veneta.  The  first  (spring)  was  represented  by  green 
colors,  the  second  (summer)  by  red,  the  third  (autumn)  by  white, 
and  the  fourth  (winter)  by  sky-blue.  Green  was  the  most  taking 
color  under  the  chief  emperors. ^  To  these  four,  Domitian  afterwards 
added  golden  and  purple  colors. ^  After  his  death  these  were  abol- 
ished, some  pretending  that  there  was  too  much  confusion  where  so 
many  chariots  racing  at  one  time  turned  around  the  meta^  or  turning- 
point. 

According  to  a  passage  in  Virgil, ^  there  were  anciently  twenty-five 
matches  a  day,  four  chariots  in  each  match,  so  as  to  make  one  hundred 
in  all.  The  last  course  (niissus)  was  run  at  the  expense  of  the  people, 
who  made  up  a  purse  to  defray  the  costs.     This  was  called  (Erarius. 

On  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  March,  the  day  appointed  for  the  races, 
the  peasants  invoked  the  gods  to  give  victory  to  the  green,  believing 
then  a  fertile  year  would  ensue.  Sailors  in  their  turn  prayed  for  a 
victory  for  the  blue,  betokening  thereby  successful  and  prosperous 
navigation.  The  overseers  of  the  factions  were  called  domoni.  Oris^i- 
nally  the  Romans  at  the  races  employed  only  slaves,  "freedmen,"  or 
servants,  but  sometimes  strangers,  relying  upon  the  speed  and  superi- 
ority of  their  horses,  challenged  others  for  the  race.  After  a  short 
time  had  elapsed,  these  plays  increased  so  much  in  favor  with  the 
public  that  the  noblest  youths  and  most  distinguished  personages,  yea, 
emperors  and  senators,  were  not  ashamed  to  appear  in  the  circus.^  So 
it  is  said  of  Caligula,  Nero,  Vitellius,  Verus,  Commodus,  Caracalla, 

and  sixty  thousand  spectators,  who  came  to  see  the  horses  and  boxers  of  the  Etrurians, 
who  were  the  chief  performers.  So  much  was  the  edifice  crowded  that  the  satirist 
tells  us,  "  Totam  hodie  Boman  circus  capit."  (Juv.,  Sat.,  XI,  195.)  The  area  of  the 
Circus  Maximus  occupied  the  hollow  between  the  Palatine  and  Aventine  Hills,  so 
that  it  was  overlooked  by  the  imperial  palace,  from  which  the  Emperors  had  so  full  a 
view  of  it  that  they  could  from  that  height  give  the  signals  for  commencing  the  races. 
But  few  fragments  of  the  structure  now  remain. 

'  Some  writers  affirm  that  having  adopted  the  races  of  the  Greeks,  the  Eomans 
added  thereto  the  red  and  white  factions,  calling  the  red,  /actio  rosea,  rubea,  nissata, 
et  coecina  ;  the  white,  (alba)  Candida  ;  the  green,  prasina  ;  and  the  blue,  veneta. 

*  "Duas  Circensibus  gregum  factiones  aurati  purpureique  panni  ad  quatuor  pristi- 
nas  addidit."  —  Suet,  in  Domit.,  ch.  7. 

=*  "Centum  quadrijugos  agitabo  ad  flumina  currus."  —  Virgil's  Qeor.,  B.  Ill,  v.  18. 

*  "Circensibus,  spatio  circi  ab  utraque  parte  producto,  et  in  gyrura  Euripo  addito, 
quadrigas  bigasque,  et  equos  desultorios  agitaveruut  uobilissimi  juvenes." — Suet,  in 
C.  J,  Coesaris,  ch.  39. 


INTENSE  LOVE   FOB   CIBCUS-B AGING.  163 

Heliogabalus,  and  many  other  emperors.  These  and  other  notables 
openly  declared  in  favor  of  the  one  or  other  faction,  but  the  people 
often  applauded  their  ftivorite  in  an  opposite  faction,  and  this  some- 
times caused  bloodshed  in  the  circus.  Caligula  one  day  became  so 
much  incensed  with  the  people  for  opposing  the  green  faction,  which 
he  favored,  that  he  ordered  his  body-guard  to  use  their  arms  against 
the  assembly ;  ^  and  the  Emperor  Yitellius  considered  it  a  crime  against 
the  state  not  to  applaud  the  blue,  which  he  Avas  in  favor  of. 

Nero  ordained  public  overseers,  and  a  number  of  detectives  and 
spies,  whose  business  it  Avas  to  scan  the  countenances  of  the  spectators, 
and  if  any  one  happened  to  look  angry  or  to  fall  asleep,  it  was  certain 
death  to  him.  A  person  once  in  the  circus  was  not  allowed  to  leave 
mider  any  pretense,  but  was  obliged  to  remain  as  long  as  the  races 
continued,   sometimes  to  the  latest  hour  of  the  night.      Vespasian, 


Roman  Coliseum  and  its   Surroundings. 

afterwards  emperor  himself,  once  fell  asleep  in  the  circus,  and  was  so 
roughly  used  in  consequence  by  Phoebus,  a  freedman  of  Nero,  that  he 
only  escaped  death  by  incessant  pleadings  and  prayers,  in  connection 
with  the  good  offices  of  his  friends,  which  induced  the  servant  not  to 


^  Suet,  in  Cal.,  ch.  55.  So  excessively  fond  was  he  of  some  charioteers  whose  col- 
ors were  green,  that  he  supped  for  some  time  in  the  stable  where  they  kept  their 
horses.  At  a  certain  revel  he  presented  one  Cythicus,  a  driver  of  a  chariot,  with  two 
millions  of  sesterces. 


164  BOMAN  WOULD  ON  WHEELS. 

report  him.  Suetonius  declares  that  women  were  frequently  confined 
in  the  circus,  and  others  were  suffocated  by  the  crowd ;  unable  to 
endure  the  fatigue  any  longer;  many  spectators  feigned  death,  that 
they  might  be  taken  outside.  Still,  the  circus  was  always  crowded  to 
excess.  Roman  citizens  on  such  occasions  forgot  their  own  and  state 
affairs,  remaining  for  days  in  the  circus,  not  caring  for  anything  be- 
sides. He  tells  us  that  on  one  occasion  when  a  famine  prevailed,  so 
distressing  that  the  people  went  every  day  to  the  sea-shore,  expecting 
the  arrival  of  a  ship  with  provisions,  they  discovered,  at  last,  a  large 
ship,  completely  rigged,  approach.  Every  one  rejoiced,  thanking  the 
gods ;  but  the  ship  proved  to  be  laden  with  fine  sand  from  the  river 
Nile,  designed  for  sprinkling  over  the  race-course.  Gladiators,  being 
iiibbed  all  over  with  oil,  used  to  throw  this  sand  at  each  other,  that 
they  might  the  better  hold  an  adversary.  Domitian  is  said  to  have 
often  prolonged  the  races  to  a  late  hour  of  the  night,  accompanied  with 
torchlight  illuminations.  The  most  terrible  storms  of  rain  could  not 
force  him  from  his  seat  at  the  circus.  He  only  changed  his  overcoat 
as  often  as  it  was  soaked  through  with  water. 

Under  the  government  of  the  emperors,  "the  Eoman  people  seem  to 
have  been  more  fond  of  the  chariot-races  than  any  other  division  of  the 
games.  For  this  reason  Maecenas  advises  Augustus  not  to  allow  any 
city  but  Eome  (where  the  populace  were  to  be  kept  together  in  good 
humor  at  all  events)  to  give  chariot-races  without  the  other  usual 
gymnastic  exercises,  in  order  to  prevent  useless  expenses,  factious 
riotings  in  favor  of  particular  charioteers,  and  that  there  might  be  no 
want  of  the  best  horses  for  the  army."  ^ 

Nero  himself  acted  the  part  of  charioteer  in  the  circus,  driving  four 
horses,^  and  at  the  Olympic  games,  ten.  On  his  arrival  at  Naples 
from  Greece,  he  entered  Eome  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  white  horses 
through  a  breach  in  the  walls,  after  the  Grecian  manner. ^     He  is  said 

'  Archoeologia,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  171.  "When,  however,  he  drove  four  horses  to  a  char- 
iot in  public,  a  piece  of  ground  in  the  valley  near  the  Vatican  was  enclosed  that  he 
might  drive  without  being  exposed  to  a  promiscuous  crowd  of  spectators."  —  Tacitus, 
Ann.,  B.  XIV,  ch.  14. 

^"Aurigavit  quoque  plurisariam,  Olympiis  vero  etiam  decemjugem."  —  Suet,  in 
Nero,  ch.  24.  "By  driving  in  the  circus  he  demeaned  himself,  however."  —  Tacitus, 
B.  XV,  ch.  44. 

^  "Reversus  e  Graecia  Neapolim,  quod  in  ea  primum  artem  protulerat,  albis  equis 
introiit,  disjecta  parte  muri,  ut  mos  hieronicarum  est." —  Suet,  in  Nero,  ch.  25. 


OFFICE   OF   CIIABIOTEEB   ACCOUNTED   MEAN. 


1G5 


never  to  have  traveled  with  less  than  one  thousand  chariots,  the  mules 
of  A\'hioh  were  shod  with  silver. ^ 

The  life  of  the  charioteer  was  viewed  as  mean  and  low.  Vitellius, 
who  spent  much  of  his  early  life  in  the  business  in  Nero's  reign,  and 
was  one  of  his  cronies,  built  a  set  of  stal)lcs  after  he  came  into  power, 
at  the  pul^lic  cost,  for  the  accommodation  of  charioteers,  and  besides 
kept  a  constant  show  of  gladiators  and  wild  beasts  in  the  circus. 
Prominent  in  the  crowd  were  this  class  of  people,  who  went  out  of  the 
city  to  meet  Yitellius  on  his  entrance  from  the  provinces  into  Rome 
after  his  investiture  with  the  regal  power,^  and  no  doubt  he  felt 
honored  by  their  attendance. 

The  accompanying  illustration  exhibits  a  racing  quadriga  copied 
from  a  tablet  iu  the  museum  of  Cardinal  Quirini,  in  Brescia,  Italy. 
Maffei,  a  competent  connoisseur,  says,  in  his  "Dittico  Quirini"  (Ye- 
roni,  1784),  that  it  is  an  excellent  work  of  art.  The  picture  here 
given  is  only  one  of  four  con- 
tained in  the  bass-relief.  The 
auriga,  or  charioteer,  holds  the 
reins  in  both  hands,  and  as  a 
precautionary  measure  has  them 
slung  around  his  body.  On  his 
hand  there  appears  to  be  a  glove 
of  leather,  overlaid  with  some 
material  probably  for  ornament. 
The  leather  texture  on  the  driv- 
er's body  is  very  distinct,  and 
strips  of  the  same  material  are 
wound  around  his  legs,  as  well 
as  those  of  the  horses,  probably 
ribbons  intended  to  show  to  which  ftiction  the  "concern"  belonged. 
The  bell  fastened  on  the  breast  of  the  off-side  horse  is  worthy  of 
notice,  as  well  as  the  "hang"  of  the  body,  intended  to  bring  the 
" bearing "  more  effectually  upon  the  axle-trees,  to  secure  the  chariot 
against  accident. 

The  ancient  circus  may  be  described  as  an  oblong  square,  Avith  the 
corners  rounded  off.     At  one  end  was  the  starting-point,  or  carceres; 


Racing  Quadkiga. 


'  Suet,  ill  Nero,  cli.  30. 


2  Tacitus,  Hist.,  B.  II,  cli.  87. 


166 


BOMAN    WOELD    01^  WHEELS. 


at  the  opposite  one  the  meta,  or  pivot,  around  which  the  chariots  in 
the  race  had  to  turn  seven  times  : 

"  "Who  claims  the  prize  ere  seven  times  round  the  goal 
With  grazing  wheel  the  kindling  chariot  roll?  "  ' 

The  accompanying  engraving  represents  an  upset  quadriga,  copied 
from  a  very  well  preserved  bass-relief  in  terra-cotta  among  the  antiques 
in  the  Imperial  Museum,  Yienna,  Austria.  In  the  original  this  is 
fifteen  inches  long  and  nine  inches  broad.  There  is  sufficient  reason 
for  supposing  this  bass-relief  to  be  the  fragment  of  a  frieze  from  some 


An   Upset    Quadkiga. 

old  sepulcher,  although  no  iron  is  found  on  the  portion  extant.  Per- 
haps this  picture  may  have  reference  to  the  death  of  some  ambitious 
auriga,  hurried  away  in  the  midst  of  a  brilliant  career;  or  to  the 
demise  of  some  j)opular  charioteer,  who,  while  turning  around  in  his 
too  rapid  course,  collided  with  the  meta,  snapping  the  fastenings  of  the 
yoke,  and  causing  the  off-side  horses  to  fall,  the  others  running  back, 
or  off  and  away. 

The  following  lines  give  a  very  fair  description  of  a  chariot-race. 
It  is  a  translation  from  Virgil's  "  Georgics  "  by  Sothel:)y  :  — 

"  See  at  the  signal,  when  the  chariots  bound, 
And  bursting  through  the  barriers  seize  the  ground. 
JSTow  with  high  hope  erect  the  drivers  dart ; 
Now  fear  exhausts  their  palpitating  heart. 


Fropertius,  Elegy  XVII,  11.  25,  2G. 


CHABIOTS  BE  AWN  BY  VAEIOUS  ANIMALS.  167 

Prone  o'er  loose  reins  they  lash  th'  extended  steed, 
And  the  winged  axle  flames  beneath  their  speed. 
Now  low  they  vanish  from  the  aching  eye  ; 
Now  mount  in  air,  and  seem  to  gain  the  sky. 
No  pause,  no  rest ;  where'er  they  sweep  the  ground 
Dust  in  thick  whirlwinds  darkens  all  around. 
Each  presses  each  ;  in  clouds  from  all  behind. 
Horse,  horsemen,  chariots  thundering  in  the  wind. 
Breath,  flakes  of  foam,  and  sweat  from  every  pore. 
Smoke  in  the  gale,  and  steam  the  victim  o'er."  ' 

Not  only  did  the  ancients  put  horses,  mules,  asses,  oxen,  camels, 
and  elephants  to  their  chariots,  but  we  are  told  that  they  accustomed 
to  the  yoke  the  most  ferocious  animals.^  On  festival  occasions  the 
visitor  might  see  in  the  circus  lions,  tigers,  bears,  stags,  buffaloes, 
zebras,  boars,  etc.,  by  couples  or  in  fours,  all  peaceably  drawing  in  a 
line.  But  it  was  not  only  at  the  great  festivals  in  the  circus,  but  also 
on  ordinary  occasions,  when  the  emperors,  high  officials,  or  persons 
of  rank  and  distinction  gave  gratuitous  exhibitions  to  the  people,  that 
all  sorts  of  beasts  appeared  on  the  ground,  and  were  hunted  and  baited 
in  different  ways.  Sometimes  an  immense  number  of  foreign  animals 
would  be  let  loose  at  a  given  signal  as  a  spoil  or  prey  to  the  people. 
There  are  still  many  old  coins  in  existence  given  out  on  such  occasions. 
The  Emperor  Severus,  in  particular,  gave  such  festivities  to  the 
public. 

M.  Coelius,  in  writing  to  Cicero  on  a  certain  occasion,  requests  that, 
"  Should  you  hear  that  I  am  chosen  chairman  (sedilis) ,  be  so  kind  as 
to  procure  for  me  some  leopards  "  ;  ^  and  in  another  letter  he  says,  "  In 
almost  all  of  my  letters  I  spoke  to  you  of  leopards.  Atticus  has  sent 
ten  to  Curio,  and  it  will  be  a  shame  if  you  don't  send  me  a  greater 
number.  Curio  has  made  me  a  present  of  this  ten,  and  given  me, 
besides,  ten  more  of  African  origin.  If  you  only  would,  you  could 
easily  do  it,  by  procuring  them  from  the  Cibyratians  [a  people  of 
Phrygia],  or  by  writing  to  Pamphylia,  where,  I  am  told,  many  are 
captured."  To  this  Cicero  replies,  "With  regard  to  the  leopards,  I 
enjoined  upon  the  hunters  of  these  animals  to  be  on  the  lookout,  but 

'  Georgics,  B.  III. 

^  "Titus  on  one  occasion  brought  into  the  theater  five  thousand  wild  beasts."  — 
Suet,  in  Titus,  eh.  6. 

"  Cicero's  Epist.,  B.  V,  Letter  II. 


168 


BOMAN  WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 


just  now  there  are  but  very  few  <;f  them  to  be  found."  •  Pliny,  in  one 
of  his  Epistles,  comijliments  his  friend  Maximus  for  his  intention  to 
hold  a  funeral  festival  for  his  deceased  wife,  on  which  occasion  gladia- 
torial and  prize  fights  were  to  take  place,  and  he  would  be  sorry  if  the 
panthers  he  had  bought  did  not  arrive  in  time. 9 

The  Greeks  were  foremost  in  the  art  of  taming  wild  beasts,  and 
some  of  them  made  it  their  special  business.  Lampridius,  in  his  Life 
of  Heliogabalus,  calls  these  beast-tamers  mansuetarii.  By  great  pa- 
tience and  some  secret  trickery  they  after  a  while  were  successful. 
Pliny  says,  "There  exist  certain  plants  which  when  mixed  with  the 
food  or  water  given  these  animals  have  the  effect  of  taming  them."^  In 
the  same  passage  he  further  tells  ns,  "  That  neither  lions  nor  panthers 
will  dare  to  attack  a  man  rubbed  with  the  juice  of  garlic."  It  is  also 
said  in  old  authors,  that  a  lion  tied  with  a  silk  cord  is  afraid  to  bite 
through  it.  Lucian  says,  "They  drag  me  around  like  a  lion  in  a 
string"  ;  and  the  pious  Chrysostom,  addressing  the  people  of  Antioch, 
exclaims,  "You  often  see  lions  led  about  the  markets,  tamed  like 
sheep."  ^ 

There  exist  a  great  number  of  relics  in  which  bigas  (two-wheeled 
vehicles)  appear,  some  of  which  are  drawn  by  lions,  and  driven  by 

boys  dressed  as  Cupids 
or  genii.  Sometimes  ti- 
gers are  substituted  for 
the  lions,  as  in  our  illus- 
tration, which  exhibits  a 
biga,  and  is  copied  from 
an  antique  cameo  to  bo 
found  in  the  renowned 
Barberinian  Museum. 
Athenias  informs  us  that 

Chariot   and   Tigers.  in  the   festivals  of  Ptol- 

emy Philadelphus  all  the  bigas  were  driven  by  boys.     In  this  instance 


'  Cicero,  B.  II,  Epist.  II. 

2  Pliny's  Epist.,  B.  VI,  Epist.  XXIV.  Marie  Anthony  yoked  wild  beasts  to  his  car- 
riage after  taming  them.  ^  puny,  u.  XXV,  ch.  2. 

''  "His  etiam  vulgo  impcratores  gaudebant,  ait  Joannes  Chrysostomus  ad  Theodo- 
rum  lapsum."  A  variety  of  Roman  designs  of  carriages  will  be  found  in  Montfaucon's 
L'Antiquite  Expliquee  et  BepresenUe  en  Figures,  Vol.  IV,  Part  II,  Paris,  1722. 


Chariot   and   Gazelles. 


GAZELLES,  STAGS,  AND  PANTHEBS   TO   CHABIOTS.     169 

the  chariot  is  of  u  Ijeautifiil  design  and  very  light.  One  of  the  leop- 
ards at  least  is  a  female  ;  and  the  savage  team,  so  mnch  feared  by  us 
now,  seems  to  be  represented  here  as  under  the  complete  control  of 
the  Cupid-boy.^ 

Our  next  figure  represents  a  biga  drawn  by  two  gazelles,  or  Egyp- 
tian goats,  and  is  taken  from  a  bass-relief  in  Pentelic  marble,  preserved 
in  the  Museum  of  Antiquities  at  Paris.  The  original  is  eighteen  inches 
long  and  three  inches  high, 
of  very  fine  workmanship. 
Stags  were  more  frequently 
used  for  draft  than  any 
other  wild  beast,  of  which 
we  shall  have  occasion  to 
say  more  in  our  "Italian 
World  on  Wheels."  At 
Rome  there  may  still  be 
seen  an  antique  bass-relief 
in  marble,  picturing  a  race  with  dog-bigas,  which  leads  us  to  think 
that  the  use  of  such  was  not  merely  a  humorous  idea,  but  an  evident 
reality.  Martial,  who  visited  the  circus  of  old,  and  was  doubtless  a 
witness  of  what  he  writes,  says,  "Since  panthers  wear  smooth  yokes 
on  spotted  necks,  and  cruel  tigers  suffer  lashings  calmly ;  since  stags 
champ  golden  bridle-bits ;  since  Libyan  bears  are  ground  with  the 
rein,  and  boars,  as  big  as  Calydon  is  said  to  have  produced,  do  foUoAV 
golden  halters  ;  since  clumsy  buffaloes  do  draw  along  essedes  [wains] , 
and  elephants  do  not  refuse  flexil)ly  dancing  to  a  swarthy  master,  why 
should  we  not  think  ours  a  spectacle  of  the  gods  ?  " 

Besides  figuring  in  the  race,  the  chariot  was  indispensable  in  gracing 
a  Eoman  triumphal  procession.^  Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Paullus 
iEmilius,  gives  us  an  account  of  one  decreed  him  by  the  Roman  Sen- 

'  A  moderu  poetess  sings  :  — 

"  On  a  gay  car,  by  speckled  panthers  fleet, 

Is  drawn  in  gallant  state  a  seeming  queen."  —  Mrs.  Tighe's  Psyche. 
*  It  appears  that  Tiberius  was  the  first  who  entered  the  city  of  Rome  in  a  chariot  in 
triumph.  "  Germanico,  quadrighita  millia  dedititiorum  trajecit  in  Galliam,  juxtaque 
ripam  Ilheni  sedibus  assignatis  coUocavit,  quas  ob  res,  et  ovans  et  curru  urbem  ingres- 
sus  est  primus,  ut  quidam  putant,  triumphalibus  ornamentis  honoi'atus,  novo  nee  antea 
cuiquam  tributo  genere  honoris."  —  Suet,  in  Tib.,  ch.  9. 


170  ROMAN   WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 

ate,  from  which  we  take  the  following  particulars  :  "In  every  theater, 
or,  as  they  call  it,  circus,  where  equestrian  games  used  to  be  held,  in 
the  forum  and  other  parts  of  the  city  which  were  convenient  for  seeing 
the  procession,  the  people  erected  scaifolds,  and  on  the  day  of  the 
triumph  were  all  dressed  in  white.  The  temples  were  set  open, 
adorned  with  garlands  and  smoking  with  incense.  Many  lictors  and 
other  officers  compelled  the  disorderly  crowd  to  make  way  and  opened 
a  clear  passage.  The  triumph  took  up  three  days.  On  the  first, 
which  was  scarcely  sufficient  for  the  show,  were  exhibited  the  images, 
paintings,  and  colossal  statues  taken  from  the  enemy,  and  now  carried 
in  procession  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  chariots.  Next  day,  the  richest 
and  most  beautiful  of  the  Macedonian  arms  were  brought  up  in  a  great 
number  of  wagons.  These  glittered  with  uew-furbished  brass  and 
polished  steel ;  and  though  they  were  piled  with  art  and  judgment, 
yet  seemed  to  be  thrown  together  promiscuously,  —  helmets  being 
placed  upon  shields,  breastplates  upon  greaves,  Cretan  targets,  Thra- 
cian  bucklers,  and  quivers  of  arrows  huddled  among  the  horses'  bits, 
with  the  points  of  naked  swords  and  long  pikes  appearing  through 
every  side.  All  these  arms  were  tied  together  with  such  a  just  liberty 
that  room  was  left  for  them  to  clatter  as  they  were  drawn  along,  and 
the  clank  of  them  was  so  harsh  and  terrible  that  they  were  not  seen 
without  dread,  though  among  the  spoils  of  the  conquered.  After  the 
carriages  loaded  with  arms  walked  three  thousand  men,  who  carried 
the  silver  money  in  seven  hundred  and  fifty  vessels,  each  of  which 
contained  three  talents  and  was  borne  by  four  men.  Others  brought 
bowls,  horns,  goblets,  and  cups  all  of  silver,  disposed  in  such  order 
as  would  make  the  best  show,  and  valuable,  not  only  for  their  size, 
but  the  depth  of  the  basso-rilievo. 

"  On  the  third  day,  early  in  the  morning,  first  came  up  the  trumpets, 
not  with  such  airs  as  are  used  in  a  procession  of  solemnity,  but  with 
such  as  the  Romans  sound  when  they  animate  their  troops  to  the 
charge.  These  were  followed  by  one  hundred  and  twenty  fat  oxen, 
with  their  horns  gilded  and  set  ofi"  with  ribbons  and  garlands.  The 
young  men  that  led  these  victims  were  girded  with  belts  of  curious 
workmanship,  and  after  them  came  the  boys  who  carried  the  gold  and 
silver  vessels  for  the  sacrifice.  Next  came  the  persons  that  carried 
the  gold  coin  in  vessels  Avhich  held  three  talents  each,  like  those  that 
contained  the  silver,  and  which  were  to  the  number  of  seventy-seven. 


TBIUMPTI  PROCESSION  FOB  ^MILIUS.  171 

Then  followed  those  that  bore  the  sacred  bowl,  of  ten  talents'  weight, 
which  ^milius  had  caused  to  be  made  of  gold  and  adorned  with  pre- 
cious stones ;  and  those  that  exposed  to  view  the  cups  of  Antigonus 
of  Seleucus,  and  such  as  were  of  the  make  of  the  famous  artist  Theri- 
cles,  together  with  the  gold  plate  that  had  been  used  at  Perseus'  table. 
Immediately  after  was  to  be  seen  the  chariot  of  that  prince,  with  his 
armor  upon  it,  and  his  diadem  upon  that ;  at  a  little  distance  his  chil- 
dren were  led  captive,  attended  by  a  great  number  of  governors,  mas- 
ters, and  preceptors,  all  in  tears,  who  stretched  out  their  hands  byway 
of  supplication  to  the  spectators,  and  taught  the  children  to  do  the 
same.  There  were  two  sons  and  one  daughter,  all  so  young  that  they 
were  not  much  affected  with  the  greatness  of  their  misfortunes.  This 
insensibility  of  theirs  made  the  change  of  their  condition  more  pitiable, 
insomuch  that  Perseus  passed  on  almost  without  notice,  so  fixed  were 
the  eyes  of  the  Romans  upon  the  children,  from  pity  -of  their  fate ; 
and  many  of  them  shed  tears,  and  none  tasted  the  joy  of  the  triumph 
without  a  mixture  of  pain  till  they  were  gone  by.  Behind  the  children 
and  their  train  walked  Perseus  himself,  clad  all  in  black,  and  wearing 
sandals  of  the  fashion  of  his  country.  He  had  the  appearance  of  a 
man  that  was  overwhelmed  with  terror,  and  whose  reason  was  almost 
staggered  with  the  weight  of  his  misfortunes.  He  was  followed  by  a 
great  number  of  friends  and  favorites,  whose  countenances  were  op- 
pressed with  sorrow,  and  who,  by  fixing  their  weeping  eyes  continu- 
ally upon  their  prince,  testified  to  the  spectators  that  it  was  his  lot 
which  they  lamented,  and  that  they  were  regardless  of  their  own.  He 
had  sent,  indeed,  to  Jilmilius  to  desire  that  he  might  be  excused  from 
being  led  in  triumph  and  being  made  a  public  spectacle.  But  ^niil- 
ius,  despising  his  cowardice  and  attachment  to  life,  by  way  of  derision, 
it  seems,  sent  by  word  'that  it  had  been  in  his  power  to  prevent  it,  and 
still  was,  if  he  were  so  disposed,'  hinting  that  he  should  prefer  death 
to  disgrace.  But  he  had  not  the  courage  to  strike  the  blow ;  and  the 
vigor  of  his  mind  being  destroyed  by  vain  hopes,  he  became  a  part  of 
his  own  spoils.  Next  were  carried  four  hundred  coronets  of  gold, 
which  the  cities  had  sent  ^milius,  along  with  their  embassies,  as  com- 
pliments on  his  victories.  Then  came  the  consul  himself,  riding  in  a 
magnificent  chariot,  —  a  man,  exclusive  of  the  pomp  of  power,  worthy 
to  be  seen  and  admired ;  but  his  good  mien  was  now  set  off  with  a 
purple  robe  interwoven  with  gold,  and  he  held  a  branch  of  laurel  in 


172 


BOM  AN  WORLD    OJV^   WHEELS. 


his  right  hand.  The  whole  army  likewise  carried  boughs  of  laurel, 
and,  divided  into  bands  and  companies,  followed  the  general's  chariot, 
some  singing  satirical  songs  usual  on  such  occasions,  and  some  chant- 
ing odes  of  victory  and  the  glorious  exploits  of  JEmilius,  who  was 
revered  and  admired  by  all,  and  whom  no  good  man  could  envy."  ^ 

Plutarch  likewise  tells  us  that  Camillus,  who  was  greatly  elated  with 
a  victory  over  a  rival  city,  "after  a  siege  of  ten  years,  misled  l)y  his 
flatterers,  took  upon  him  too  much  state  for  a  magistrate  sul)ject  to 
the  laws  and  usages  of  his  country ;  for  his  triumph  was  conducted 
with  excessive  pomp,  and  he  rode  through  Rome  in  a  chariot  drawn 
by  four  white  horses,  which  no  general  ever  did  before  or  after  him. 
Indeed,  this  sort  of  carriage  is  esteemed  sacred,  and  is  appropriated  to 
the  kino;  and  father  of  the  gods."^ 

The  annexed  illustration  represents  a  section  of  the  triumphal  pro- 
cession in  bass-relief  on  the  arch  erected  in  honor  of  the  Emperor 

Titus  at  Rome,  still 
standing.  The  poi- 
trels  and  throat- 
latches  in  the  harness 
of  the  horses  are  re- 
markably well  delin- 
eated. The  figure 
standing  in  the  char- 
iot, with  one  arm 
outstretched  and  the 
other  holding  the 
reins,  represents  the 
emperor  in  whose 
honor  the  procession  is  instituted.  Behind  him  follows  a  captive 
taken  in  battle,  who  in  this  case  is  the  representative  of  many  others 
usually  gracing  such  occasions. ^ 


Triumph   of  Titus. 


*  Plutarch's  Life  of  ^milius.     This  triumph  was  celebrated  B.  C.  1G7. 

^  Plutarch's  Life  of  Camillus. 

^  "  Germanicus  Caesar,  after  his  victories  over  various  nations,  in  a  triumph  voted 
him,  carried  all  the  spoils  and  captives,  with  representations  of  tlie  mountains,  rivers, 
and  battles.  .  .  .  His  own  singularly  fine  person,  and  his  chariot  filled  with  his 
five  children,  heightened  the  admiration  of  the  beholders."  —  Tacitus,  Ann.,  B.  II, 
ch.  41. 


FUNEBAL   COBTEGE    FBOM  A   MONUMENT. 


173 


Among  the  Romans  great  attention  was  paid  to  the  fmieral  rites  for 
the  dead,  and  no  misfortune  was  deeper  felt  than  the  loss  of  the  body 
of  a  friend  by  shipwreck  or  other  causes.  In  earlier  days  they  interred 
the  remains  in  the  earth,  the  ancient  and  more  natural  Avay,  l)ut  in 
after  times  they  were  burned  to  ashes  on  the  funeral  pile.  This  to 
them  important  ceremony  could  not  be  performed  where  the  body  was 
not  found.  The  burning  of  corpses,  according  to  Pliny,  was  instituted 
to  prevent  the  digging  up  by  the  enemy  of  the  bodies  of  such  Eoman 
soldiers  as  fell  in  distant  wars.  Sylla  ordered  his  body  burned  after 
death,  lest  some  one,  if  buried,  should  dig  it  up  and  scatter  the 
remains,  as  they  had  done  those  of  Marius.  Under  the  emperors  the 
custom  was  almost  universal,  and  was  only  abandoned,  under  the 
influences  of  Christianity,  about  the  end  of  the  fourth  century. 

The  engraving  is  supposed  to  represent  a  portion  of  the  funeral  cor- 
tege of  a  distinguished  sportsman  (some  think  Meleager)  on  its  way 
to  the  funeral  pile.  The  original  in  bass-relief  is  deposited  in  the  Bar- 
berinian  Palace  at  Rome.  The  monument  on  which  it  appears  covered 
the  grave  of  the  hero. 
The  bier  with  the 
body  is  not  seen,  Irat 
the  two  dogs  in  the 
care  of  a  slave,  and 
the  stringless  1)0W  in 
the  hands  of  the 
charioteer,  are  very 
significant,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  such 
animals  as  were  favorites  with  the  dead  were  slain,  and  the  bodies, 
with  other  coveted  effects,  thrown  on  the  pile  of  pine,  fir,  or  oak 
wood,  which  was  lighted  with  a  torch  of  rope  covered  with  wax  or 
tallow.  After  opening  the  eyes  and  kissing  the  corpse,  some  near 
relative  set  fire  to  the  pile  with  his  back  to  it,  in  token  that  he  did  so 
with  reluctance.  After  burning,  the  ashes  were  gathered  up  and  care- 
fully put  in  an  urn  made  of  either  marble,  brass,  silver,  or  gold, 
according  to  the  wealth  or  rank  of  the  family,  and  deposited  in  the 
sepulcher. 

The  rheda  was  evidently  a  great  fiivorite  with  the  Roman  people, 
and  of  three  kinds  :  the  military  or  state  rheda,  the  post  rheda,  and 


Portion  of  a  Funerai,  Cortege. 


174 


BOMAN   WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 


the  private  or  family  rheda.  Their  invention  is  attributed  to  the 
Gauls,  the  Eomans  afterwards  having  adopted  them.  Some  were 
hung  on  two  and  some  on  four  wheels.  The  frame  of  the  carriage,  as 
well  as  the  two-wheeled  car,  was  called  rhedia;  the  body  of  the  car 
resting  on  the  axle-tree  was  ftistened  by  two  wooden  pins  or  bolts,  and 
was  drawn  by  a  pole  secured  to  the  axle  at  one  end,  and  by  a  pin  at 
the  other  to   a  yoke,  as  in  the  ancient  war-chariots  of  Assyria  and 

Greece.   The 
vehicle 


hero 
shown  is 
hung  off 
quite  low  on 
the  axle-tree, 
and  is  made 
low  in  the 
side  for  the 
entrance  of 
passengers. 
They  are  sup- 
^^^^^^  posed  to  have 
seated  six 
persons, 

three  on  each  seat,  with  ease.  It  appears  to  have  been  richly  orna- 
mented, but  when  hung  on  two  wheels  must  have  been  "hard  on  horse- 
flesh." These  vehicles  were  used  for  various  purposes,  and  were 
generally  drawn  by  oxen.  Cicero,  in  writing  to  Atticus  on  one  occa- 
sion, says,  "'Heine  episfolam  dictavi  sedens  in  rheda,'' ^  from  which  we 
infer  that  the  movement  of  the  vehicle  was  slow  and  steady  enough  to 
allow  the  passenger  to  write  a  letter  while  traveling ;  and  we  learn 
from  other  authors  that  they  were  employed  in  conveying  materials  of 


Two-wHEELBD   Rheda. 


^  Cic,  Att.,  B.  V,  17.  After  their  expeditious  into  Gaul  aud  Britain,  the  Eomans 
adopted  the  esseda  for  their  own  purposes,  as  .being  mucli  liglitcr  tlian  tlie  rlieda,  not 
only  in  travel  but  also  in  solemn  processions.  It  is  evident  in  a  passage  from  Ovid 
that  the  esseda  in  time  became  very  fashionable  with  the  young  ladies,  themselves 
holding  the  reins  in  driving.  Ovid,  Amor,  B.  XVI.  In  a  letter  to  Atticus,  Cicero 
says,  "Hie  vedius  venit  mihi  obviam  cum  duobus  essedis,  et  rheda  equis  juncta,  et 
lectica,  et  familia  magna.  .  .  .  Erat  praeterea  cynocephalus  in  essedo  :  nee  deerant 
onagri."— Cicero  JUS  ad  Attico,  B.  VI,  Epist.  I.  The  esseda,  rheda,  and  litter  appear 
to  have  been  the  most  common  vehicles  in  daily  use  with  the  Romans. 


LAWS  BEQULATING   THE   USE   OF  EHEDAS.  175 

war,  money,  and  other  goods.  The  Theodosian  Code  ordained  that 
this  should  not  cany  more  than  one  thousand  pounds'  weight,  and  that 
eight  mules  in  summer  and  ten  in  winter  should  be  yoked  to  it.^  Con- 
stantine  also  ordered  that  no  one  who  traveled  on  public  business 
should  dare  to  demand  the  oxen  of  the  peasantry,  but  employ  those 
only  kept  for  the  public  service. 

The  state  rheda  was  strongly  built,  and  for  security  was  enclosed  all 
around,  to  protect  the  occupants  from  danger,  or  to  insure  the  safety 
of  goods  and  money.  It  was  decided  by  law  that  "when  gold  or 
silver  presents  shall  be  sent,  the  rheda  shall  not  carry  more  than  five 
hundred  pounds  of  gold  or  one  thousand  pounds  of  silver  "  ;  and  fur- 
ther, that  "  only  the  finer  apparel  and  the  linen  necessary  for  use  to 
the  weight  of  one  thousand  pounds  shall  be  carried  by  the  govern- 
ment." Unlike  some  monopolies  of  the  present  day,  conveyance  in 
these  vehicles  was  perfectly  safe,  and  goods  intrusted  in  them  were 
seldom  lost.  This,  as  we  have  seen  from  Cicero's  letter,  was  a  slow 
vehicle. 

The  post  rheda  was  evidently  a  lighter  carriage  and  a  much  more 
expeditious  vehicle  of  travel.  Suetonius,  in  his  Life  of  Cffisar,  says 
that,  "In  a  hired  rheda  he  made  the  longest  journeys  with  extraordi- 
nary rapidity,  going  daily  a  distance  of  one  thousand  steps,"  or  nearly 
ninety-five  miles.  From  various  authors  we  learn  that  these  post 
rhedas  were  easy  and  comfortable,  the  seats  being  hung  in  straps,  and 
furnished  with  soft  bolsters  and  pillows.  They  were  regularly  sta- 
tioned in  sufficient  numbers  at  the  post-houses  for  the  public  conven- 
ience. Thus  the  military,  public  officers,  couriers,  or  private  persons 
were  furnished  with  every  necessary  convenience  for  business  or  travel. 
Special  laws  were  instituted,  that  "when  a  district  selects  deputies,  to 
whom  their  designs  have  been  confided,  they  shall  be  provided  for 
their  accommodation  with  a  rheda." 

The  third-class  or  family  rheda  is  alluded  to  by  Juvenal.^  Martial, 
also,  in  his  Epigram  on  Bassus,  describes  an  epicurean  as  "driving 
from  his  country  estate  into  town  in  his  full  rheda,  bearing  all  the 
fruits  of  this  fruitful  earth.  You  might  have  seen  the  broad  lettuce, 
the  onions  and  garlic,  and  the  cabbages,  not  unsuited  to  the  delicate 
stomach.  Near  them  lay  a  garland  of  fat  fieldfares,  a  hare  wounded 
by  a  dog,  and  a  sucking  pig." 

'  Theod.  Cocte,  IX.    ^  "  Tota  demus  rheda  componitur  una."  — Juv.,  B.  I,  Sat.,  Ill,  10. 


17G 


BOM  AN  WOBLD   OK  WHEELS. 


with  great  comfort 


Military  or   State   Rheda, 


According  to  Paulus,  the  rheda  must  in  some  instances  have  been 
supplied  with  a  covering,  for  he  mentions  various  articles  as  being 
necessary  to  furnish  a  traveling  equipage,  as  "  a  carpet  for  the  feet, 
the  soft  packing  skins,  straps,  and  the  linen  cover  to  spread  ove^  the 
carriage.''  Pliny  tells  us  that  he  made  a  journey  to  Rome  in  a  rheda 
The  stout  leather  surrounded  and  curtained  it 

^      securely     from     the 

wind  and  frost,  while 
the  latticed  windows 
with  their  linen  blinds 
let  in  the  softened 
light,  and  the  well- 
filled  ]>()lsters  covered 
the  easy  seat."  The 
frame-work  or  l)ows 
for  the  top  were  made 
of  birch  poles,  bent 
to  an  arch,  and  extending  across  the  body,  as  in  our  grocery  or  lousi- 
ness wagons.  Although  very  clumsy  in  the  judgment  of  a  modern 
carriage-builder,  still  the  rheda  must  have  been  a  superior  vehicle 
when  compared  with  the  carruca,  or  its  adoption  from  the  Gauls  might 
not  have  taken  place. 

Rheda  meritoria  was  the  name  of  a  sort  of  hackney-coach  used 
among  the  Eomans,  both  open  and  closed.  In  those  early  times  many 
kinds  of  wagons  were  found  ready  to  do  hack  service,  which  were 
generally  denominated  vehiculce  meritorim.  Mail  service  had  been 
instituted  chiefly  for  state  ofllcers'  and  the  emperor's  use,  and  conse- 
quently business  men  or  others  traveling  for  private,  purposes  had  to 
employ  these  hackney  vehicles.  Some  of  the  most  distinguished  citi- 
zens of  Rome,  and  even  emperors  sometimes,  found  it  necessary  to 
ride  in  them.  Suetonius  says  of  Julius  Csesar  that  he  accomplished, 
free  of  baggage,  the  longest  journeys  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of 
time,i  and  Plutarch  completes  the  report  l>y  saying  that  this  journey 


'  "  Longissimas  vias  incredibili  celeritate  confecit,  expeditus,  meritoria  rheda,  cen- 
tena  passuum  raillia  in  singulos  dies."  —  Suet,  in  C.  J.  Consar,  ch.  57.  On  one  occasion 
lie  set  out  for  Gaul  after  sunset  in  a  velaicle  drawn  by  mules  taken  from  a  neigliboring 
mill.  "  Dein  post  soils  occasum  mulls  e  proximo  pistrimo  ad  vehiculum  junctis  occul- 
tissimum  iter  modico  comitatu  ingressus  est." — Suet,  in  G.  J.  Cossar,  ch.  31. 


ANCIENT  MANNEB   OF   TRAVEL. 


177 


was  accomplished  so  quickly  that  Ciiesar  arrived  on  the  })anks  of  the 
Ehoiie  ill  eight  days  after  his  departure  from  Eome.^  Tacitus  says 
that  when  Messalina  discovered  her  dangerous  situation,  she  concluded 
to  meet  her  husband,  Claudius,  and  at  the  gate  of  the  city  she  found  a 
common  wagon,  and  mounting  it,  with  three  other  persons  drove  to 
Oslia.  Pliny  tells  us  in  one  of  his  letters,  "I  decided  to  travel  to  the 
province,  partly  in  market  ships  and  partly  in  hackney  vehicles";^ 
and  Horace,  in  the  Three  Satires,  mentions  that  after  having  traveled 
in  the  market  ships,  he  and  his  friends  rode  farther  on  mules,  sitting 


Hungarian   Cakkiage,   after   Ginzrot. 

in  cittadelles;  and  in  the  same  passage  he  speaks  of  having  traveled 
twenty-four  miglii  in  hackney  vehicles.  We  know  that  when  Nero 
set  out  against  the  rebellious  Gauls,  he  took  particular  pains  to  carry 
along  with  him  in  wagons  all  his  musical  instruments,  but  not  in  his 
own.  These  are  supposed  to  have  been  put  into  a  covered  vehicle 
which  Ginzrot  says  was  the  rheda,  similar  to  a  Hungarian  carriage 
then  in  use. 

The  carruca  was  introduced  into  Rome  much  later  than  the  carpen- 
tum  (p.  139)  already  noticed.  Although  mentioned  by  Pliny  ^  and 
others,  very  little  is  known  concerning  them.  They  are  said  to  have 
been  first-class  vehicles,  ornamented  with  gold  and  precious  stones, 
and  that  the  Romans  considered  it  an  honor  to  ride  in  those  that  were 
hung  remarkably  high.  In  the  Theodosian  Code  the  use  of  them  is 
not  only  allowed  to  civil  and  military  officers  of  the  foremost  rank, 

'  Plutarch,  Cms.,  p.  71G.  «  Pliny,  EpisL,  B.  X,  26. 

^  Pliny,  Einst.,  B.  X,  33,  49. 
12 


178 


BOMAN  WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


but  commanded,  as  u  mark  of  their  dignity.'  These  caiTuca3  had  a 
frame  on  which  they  were  hung  either  higher  or  hjwer,  but  of  a  clumsy 
appearance.  If  designed  merely  for  show,  it  sustained  an  elevated 
weifdit ;  if  for  sleeping,  the  body  was  hung  somewhat  lower. 

The  name  "carruca"  is  derived  from  ciirrus,  the  Latin  for  chariot, 
which,  as  our  readers  have  seen,  was  in  use  among  the  Egyptians  and 

Assyrians  long  anterior  to 
the  foundation  of  Rome. 
From  the  Avord  carross  the 
English  word  "  carriage  "  is 
supposed  to  have  come.  It 
would  appear  from  a  passage 
in  Horace  that  the  carucca 
was  originally  made  like  the 
p  i  le  ntum  and  apene .  Accord- 
ing  to  Ammianus,  "  it  was  a 
great  thing  for  persons  to 
have  a  four-wheeled  carruca 
built  higher  than  anybody 
else,  for  in  these  they  could 
ha  seen  better  than  in  any 
other."  Extravagant  sums 
are  reported  to  have  been 
expended  in  decorating  the 
carruca  by  the  wealthy  Ro- 
mans. Martial,  in  one  of  his  Epigrams,  tells  us  that  this  vehicle  in 
some  instances  "  had  cost  a  country  estate."  Suetonius,  in  his  Life  of 
Nero,  says  that  tyrant  in  his  journeyings  never  had  less  than  three 
thousand  carrucas  in  his  train,  and  that  all  the  mules  drawinof  them 
were  shod  with  silver.  The  passion  for  splendor  and  show  among  the 
luxurious  Romans  raged  so  high  that  in  order  to  check  the  evil  severe 
measures  were  adopted. 

Besides  these  we  have  described,  the  Romans  had  other  vehicles, 
concerning  which  scarcely  any  two  writers  are  agreed.  Adams,  in  his 
"Roman  Antiquities,"  tells  us  that  the  iJiensa  was  "a  splendid  carriage 
with  four  wheels  and  four  horses,  adorned  with  ivory  and  silver,  in 


The   Carruca. 


See  Codex  Theocl,  B.  XIV,  Tit.  12,  and  Codex  Justin.,  B.  XI,  Tit.  19. 


BENNA,    OR  a  OMAN-  BUS  TIC   WAGON. 


179 


which  the  images  of  the  gods  were  led  in  solemn  procession  from  their 
shrines  at  the  Circensian  games  to  a  place  in  the  circus  called  pul- 
vina." '  Ginzrot  devotes  a  chapter  to  the  thensa,  and  iUustrates  it 
with  a  birota,  or  two-wheeled  vehicle,  very  much  like  the  pilentum. 
The  weight  of  testimony  pronounces  it  a  four-wheeled  vehicle,  and  the 
fact  that  it  was  moved  by  thongs  (lor-a  tensa)  stretched  before  it  — 
from  which  circumstance  it  received  its  name  —  is  still  further  evi- 
dence ;  for  it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  draw  a  two-wheeled 
vehicle  with  a  rope.  On  these  solemn  occasions  persons  of  the  first 
rank,  dressed  in  magnificent  apparel,  attended  the  pageant,  consid- 
ering it  a  delightful  and  blessed  privilege  to  be  allowed  to  even  touch 
the  ropes.  Under  the  emperors,  the  decreeing  of  a  thensa  to  any  one 
was  an  acknowledgment  of  his  divinity.^ 

Benna  was  the  name  of  a  rustic  wagon  which  figures  on  the  Arch 
of  Trajan  at  Rome,  a  reduced  copy  of  which  is  shown  in  the  illustra- 
tion. The  body  of 
the  vehicle,  drawn 
by  mules,  appears  to 
have  been  made  of 
twisted  grass  rope, 
sewn  together  and 
placed  on  a  platform 
or  bottom  of  wood, 
framed.  The  wheels 
are  supplied  with 
twelve  spokes,  an  unusually  large  number.  This  must  have  been  a 
very  common  vehicle,  probably  used  chiefly  by  the  common  people. 
Petori'itum,  sarraca,  scirjjea,  chaniulais,  epirhedum,  etc.,  were  the 
names  of  other  vehicles,  of  which  we  have  but  little  knowledge,  and 
therefore  cannot  describe  them. 

The  engraving  on  next  page  exhibits  a  bird's-eye  view  of  a  Roman 
carriage-part  or  gear  for  four-wheeled  vehicles,  which  were  nearly  all 
alike,  the  change  being  to  accommodate  them  to  the  different  bodies 


'  Suet,  in  Aug.,  43,  et  Vesp.,  5. 

*  "OmuesDii,  qui  veliiculis  thensarum  solennes  coetus  ludorum  initis."  —  Cickuo, 
Verr.,  V,  72.  "  Neronem  diebus  ultimis  monitum  per  quietara,  ut  thensam  Jovis  Opt. 
Max.  e  sacrario  in  domum  Vespasiani  et  in  circura  deduceret."  —  Suet.,  Vesp.,  ch.  5. 
This  dream  he  interpreted  as  being  fortunate. 


180 


BOMAN  WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


hung  thereon.  "When  a  square  body  with  curved  rails  was  mounted 
on  it,  it  Av^as  called  canaihra^  sirpea,  benna,  etc.  When  the  body  was 
paneled  and  covered  with  a  top,  half  or  full,  the  vehicle  was  known  as 
an  arcera^  rlieda^  carruca^  vehiculum  arceratum,  or  cameratum,  etc. 
For  all  vehicles,  of  which  the  monuments  only  show  the  wheels,  the 
plan  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  representation  of  the  whole,  by  making  a 
proper  allowance  for  the  lengths  of  the  different  bodies  used.     When 

a  wooden  platform  merely  was 
used  on  these  under-carriages, 
the  vehicle  thus  constructed 
was  called  a  plaustrum  majus, 
and  was  used  by  the  business 
classes  for  carrying  bags,  l)ales, 
and  goods. 

Among  the  ancients  strength 
was  of  more  importance  than 
beauty  in  a  carriage.  The 
frame-work  shows  such  to  have 
been  the  case.  As  in  our  ex- 
ample, these  consisted  of  two 
axles,  connected  by  a  perch  or 
pole,  generally  straight,  and 
firmly  fixed  in  the  fore-axle, 
where  it  was  secured  by  iron 
plates  and  bolted.  The  hind 
end  was  mortised  into  the  back 
axle,  and  strengthened  hy  tAvo 
iron  wing-braces,  as  is  some- 
times done  in  modern  carriages, 
and  the  whole  was  additionally 
strengthened  hy  two  wooden  bars,  as  shown  in  the  engraving.  Between 
the  center  of  the  perch  and  under  the  floor  of  the  body  two  props  Avere 
placed  as  a  support  to  the  center.  To  these  ancient  carriages  spring 
yokes  Avere  sometimes  applied,  and  often  in  the  better  class  supported 
on  the  ends  of  elastic  poles,  Avhere  they  Avere  secured  by  iron  .rings  or 
sockets.  These  poles  were  attached  to  the  axles,  and  as  the  Aveight 
was  not  directly  on  them,  but  on  the  ends  of  the  poles,  the  motion  of 
the  carriage  was  thereby  relieved.     Sometimes  a  greater  number  of 


Roman   Carriage-part. 


ODOMETER  DESCBIBED  BY  VITRUVIUS.  181 

poles  were  combined  with  the  same  end  in  view.  These  primitive 
springs  may  at  first  siglit  appear  to  have  had  but  little  value ;  when 
we  consider,  however,  that  many  kinds  of  hard  wood  preserve  their 
elasticity  for  a  long  period,  we  may  believe  that  when  tapered  and 
properly  arranged  both  the  motion  and  the  draft  would  be  much  easier 
than  in  carriages  made  without  them.  The  poles  were  bound  to  the 
axle  by  iron  bands  called  axle-girdles.  The  axle-trees  in  inferior  car- 
riages were  mostly  made  of  wood  and  sometimes  strengthened  with 
iron.  In  the  better  class  the  tree  was  fitted  into  an  iron  bush  which 
entered  the  hub,  and  again  the  entire  axle  was  made  of  iron.  On  this 
axle  the  wheel  was  invariably  secured  by  a  linchpin.  The  under  side 
of  the  fore-carriage  was  coupled  to  the  upper  portion  by  a  sort  of  king- 
bolt, which  aided  the  turning  about  of  the  vehicle,  as  in  modern  times. 
By  splitting  the  ends  of  the  pole,  and  attaching  it  to  the  ends  of  the 
furchells  by  a  bolt,  is  shown  one  of  the  most  simple  modes  of  coupling 
poles  to  a  carriage.  The  pole  was  not  fixed  or  stationary  at  the  end, 
as  in  two-wheeled  carriages,  but  worked  on  a  long  bolt,  in  order  to 
relieve  the  horses  of  the  weight,  and  was  kept  in  its  place  by  a  support 
fastened  at  the  ends  of  the  forked  frame  or  furchells.  On  the  back  of 
the  frame  two  chairs  or  straps  were  placed,  that  when  passing  over 
precipitous  grounds,  if  necessary,  force  might  be  applied  to  break  the 
momentum  and  prevent  the  carriage  from  running  down  liill.  Many 
of  the  Roman  carriages  were  exceedingly  strong  and  heavy ;  inter- 
course with  distant  countries  was  continually  kept  up  by  them,  and 
goods,  materials  of  great  weight  and  value,  were  daily  passing  to  and 
from  the  dififerent  cities ;  so  that  it  was  necessary  to  provide  such 
appliances  as  would  under  all  circumstances  be  requisite. 

The  odometer,  or  road-measurer,  appears  to  have  sometimes  formed 
a  part  of  the  fixtures  of  a  Roman  carriage.  Vitruvius,  in  describing  a 
carriage,  says,  "From  the  side  of  the  carriage,  and  connected  with  the 
interior  machinery,  a  finger  or  rod  jutted  out,  which  at  every  revolu- 
tion of  the  wheel  came  in  contact  with  a  projection  against  which  it 
rubbed,  and  a  sound  was  made,  and  the  hand  was  moved  forward  on 
the  indicator.  In  this  manner  the  number  of  paces  which  had  been 
accomplished  were  shown,  and  the  riders  knew  exactly  how  much  of 
their  journey  had  been  performed."  ^ 

'  Vitruvius,  B.  X. 


182  BOMAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

Pliny,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  mucli  information  relating  to 
carriages,  tells  us  that  one  Myrmecides,  an  artist  of  his  time,  made 
and  exhibited  a  carriage  and  horses  of  brass,  ivory,  and  marble,  the 
whole  no  larger  than  a  fly.  An  energetic  people,  such  as  the  Komans 
were,  no  doubt  had  a  great  variety  of  carriages,  many  of  which,  not 
possessing  the  character  of  public  vehicles,  have  been  neglected  by 
both  the  writers  of  poetry  and  history,  and  consequently  their  names 
as  well  as  form  are  now  irrecoverably  lost.  Speculation  may  serve  to 
confuse  the  mind  of  the  student  of  history,  but  will  give  very  little 
satisfaction  to  the  sober  reader. 

There  is  extant  a  modern  work  entitled  "  Roma  Antica  e  Moderna," 
in  which  are  shown  numerous  engravings  of  carriages  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  drawn  by  two  and  four  horses,  some  of  them  opening  at  the 
center  of  the  head,  driven  by  coachmen  in  livery,  Avith  footmen  perched 
up  behind,  engaged  in  setting  down  passengers  at  the  doors  of  monas- 
teries, etc.  Among  these  are  coaches,  gigs,  and  sedans  similar  to 
others  then  in  fashion  in  other  portions  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  but 
which  we  must  omit  for  want  of  room.i 

'  See  Boma  Antica  e  Moderna,  by  Guiseppe  Vasi,  2  vols.,  Rome,  1756. 


POMPEII  AND  HEBCULANEUM  IN  liUINS. 


183 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PAINTED    ITALIAN    CARRIAGES     FROM    RUINED     CITIES    AND    OTHERS,    ON 

THE    ROAD. 

"  Vesuvius  answered  :  from  its  pinnacles 
Clouds  of  far-flashing  cinders,  lava  showers, 
And  seas  drank  up  by  the  abyss  of  fire. 
To  be  hurled  forth  in  cataracts. 
Like  midnight  mountains,  wrapped  in  lightnings,  fell. 


the  ui-t 
tions. 
state  of 


Awful  sounds  of  heaven  and  earth  met  now, 
Darkness  behind  the  sun-god's  chariot  rolled." 

Fairfield's  Destruction  of  Pompeii. 


ENTUEIES  L'lve  multiplied  since 
Pompeii  and  Herculanemn  ^  were 
overwhelmed  with  a  mass  of  debris 
thrown  from  the  bowels  of  Vesu- 
vius, destructive  alike  to  every- 
thing of  a  perishable  nature,  among 
which  were  the  carriages  then  in 
use.  Luckily,  however,  the  public 
s^r-  and  private  edifices  have  served  as 

depositories  for  sculpture  and  paintings  to  all  future  genera- 
From  these  we  are  enabled  to  form  a  very  correct  idea  of  the 
vehicular  art  then  in  practice. 


>  The  cities  of  Pompeii  aud  Herculanemn  were  anciently  independent  of  Roman 
sway,  but  in  the  course  of  time,  through  political  indiscretions  and  intermeddling  with 
the  quarrels  of  their  neighbors,  they  drew  down  upon  themselves  the  eumity  of  that 
powerful  nation.  Once  reduced  to  suljjectiou,  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Latiu  race 
were  forced  upon  them,  in  place  of  those  of  Greece,  from  whence  the  people  originally 
came.  (Suet,  in  Aikj.,  98.)  In  this  humiliating  condition  the  citizens  stood  in 
A.  D.  79,  when,  in  a  single  night,  the  entire  population  were  suddenly  buried  beneath 
a  heterogeneous  mass  of  stones,  cinders,  and  ashes  vomited  from  Vesuvius.    In  this 


184:  ITALIAN  WOBLD   Olf  WHEELS. 

The  next  illustration  is  copied  from  ii  painting  found  at  Pompeii, 
representing  the  entrance  to  a  temple,  over  the  door  of  which,  on  the 
wall,  this  car  of  the  goddess  Victory  was  found,  in  colors  of  gold. 
The  celestial  deity  appears  with  whip  in  hand,  inciting  her  spirited 

coursers  to  greater  speed,  just  as  any 
earthly  mortal  might  be  expected  to  do. 
The  chariot  itself  is  modeled  very  much 
like  others  which  follow  in  this  chapter. 
As  is  the  case  generally  with  paintings 
from  these  overthrown  cities,  the  artist 
has  neglected  to  supply  the  details  re- 
quired to  show  the  mode  of  harnessing 
the  horse  to  the  vehicle,  —  a  matter  very 
much  to  be  regretted,  since  Ave  have  no  means  of  supplying  the  defi- 
ciency from  any  other  source.  Although  the  Pompeiians  originally 
came  from  Greece,  and  art  might  naturally  be  expected  to  show  some 
characteristics  of  that  people,  yet,  singular  as  it  may  appear,  the  vehi- 
cles were  modeled  more  after  those  of  Rome. 

From  the  ruins,  among  other  curiosities,  we  select  an  illustration 
from  an  arabesque.  The  bird  introduced  as  drawing  the  l)iga  repre- 
sents a  parrot,  and  it  would  seem  as  though  the  pall-covered  vehicle 

state,  for  ages  in  obscurity,  remained  some  of  the  choicest  gems  of  tlie  painter,  on 
which  are  delineated  the  vehicles  of  a  festive  but  intelligent  race.  —  According  to 
Salinus,  Pompeii  received  its  name  from  the  Greek  word  IIOMIIH,  in  allusion  to  the 
pomp  with  which  Hercules  celebrated  his  victories,  while  awaiting  liis  fleet  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Sarnus,  which  flows  into  the  Bay  of  Naples,  now  known  as  the  Sarno. 
Sixteen  yeai's  previous  to  its  overthrow,  which  happened  in  the  ninth  year  of  Nero's 
reign,  the  city  had  been  visited  by  a  very  severe  earthquake,  throwing  down  a  large 
proportion  of  the  buildings,  which  at  the  time  were  rapidly  being  rebuilt.  It  will 
therefore  be  understood  that  the  destruction  of  this  city  —  as  well  as  Herculaneum, 
named  in  honor  of  Hercules  —  was  the  work  of  two  distinct  periods  of  calamity. 
Pompeii  was  suffered  to  remain  in  a  buried  state  down  to  1748,  when  excavating  began, 
and  it  was  ascertained  that  the  ruin  of  the  city  was  not  accomplished  by  uniform 
showers  of  pumice-stones  and  cinders,  as  many  have  supposed,  but  by  a  succession 
of  volcanic  eruptions.  In  some  places  the  debris  lies  in  Ave  distinct  tiers,  twenty  feet 
deep,  the  three  being  composed  of  pumice-stone  in  small  pieces,  resembling  a  light 
cinder,  the  next  six  parts  beginning  with  a  stratum  of  small  black  stones,  not  more 
than  three  inches  deep ;  next  to  this  a  layer  of  mud  or  earth  mixed  Avith  water ;  on 
this  a  thin  series  of  light  stones  of  a  mixed  hue,  blue  predominating.  A  stratum  of 
mud,  separated  by  a  thin,  wavy  line  of  mixed  blue  stones,  completes  the  fourth.  The 
fifth,  or  highest  division,  is  earth  which  has  accumulated  during  the  past  seventeen 
centuries. 


POETICAL  SENTIMENTALISM. 


185 


driven  l)y  the  locust  was  emblematical  of  destruction,  the  entire  picture 
representing  a  funeral  cortege,  in  which  the  remains  of  Love  are  borne 
to  the  grave.  The  ancients  were  accustomed  to  represent  affection  by 
the  figure  of  the  parrot.  Statius,  a  Latin  poet  of  much  celebrity,  in 
one  of  his  sweetest  moods,  calls  this  loquacious  bird  the  ^^  humanoi  sai- 
lers imitator  linguce,''  —  a  clever  imitator  of  the  human  voice. ^ 


Parrot  Biga.  — Pompeii. 

In  an  elegy  mourning  the  death  of  a  parrot  given  to  his  Corinna, 
Ovid  says,  "The  parrot,  the  imitative  bird,  sent  from  the  Indies  of  the 
East,  is  dead.  Come  in  flocks  to  his  obsequies,  ye  birds  !  Come  in 
flocks  to  his  obsequies,  ye  denizens  of  air,  and  beat  your  breasts  with 
your  wings,  and  with  your  hard  claws  disfigure  your  delicate  features  ! 
.  .  .  Turn  your  attention  to  a  bird  so  prized.  Itys  is  a  cause  of 
sorrow,  but  still  that  is  so  old.  All  who  poise  yourselves  in  your 
career  in  the  liquid  air,  but  you  above  the  rest,  affectionate  turtle-dove, 
lament  him.  Throughout  life  there  was  a  firm  attachment  between 
you,  and  your  prolonged  and  lasting  friendship  endured  to  the  end. 
What  the  Phocion  youth  was  to  the  Argive  Orestes,  this  same  parrot 
was  the  turtle-dove  to  you,  as  long  as  it  was  by  fate."^ 

•  The  poets  of  autiquity  were  foud  of  connecting  birds  with  the  chariot  or  car.  In 
tlie  beautiful  Hymn  to  Venus,  Sappho  says,  addressing  the  goddess,  — ■ 

"  The  car  tliy  wanton  sparrows  drew; 
Hovering  in  air  tliey  lightly  flew." 
'Tour  white  doves,  out  of  the  many  that  nestled  about,     .     .     .     advanced,  and 
bending  their  painted  necks   to  the  jeweled  yoke,  flew  forward  with  the   chariot. 
Around  it  wantoned  chattering  sparrows,"  etc.  —  Apulicius,  Golden  Ass,  B.  VI. 

*  Ilabiugton,  an  English  poet  of  some  celebrity,  has  sung,  — 


186 


ITALIAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


The  next  engraving  represents  the  chariot  of  Venus,  driven  by  her 
son  Cupid,  generally,  or  at  least  sometimes,  represented  as  drawn  by 
swans,  and  in  other  cases  by  swallows  or  doves.  This  chariot  from 
Pompeii  was  formed  of  carved  and  gilded  ivory.     As  usual,  it  has 

eight  spokes  to 
each  wheel.  Tak- 
ing this  example 
for  a  model,  we 
have  no  very  ex- 
alted idea  of 
the  taste  dis- 
played by  Venus 
in  the  selection 
of  her  equipage, 
nor  of  her  son's 
wisdom  in  the 
choice  of  his 
team.i 
Lucian,  a  learned  and  witty  author,  makes  Cupid  say,  "I  make 
myself  familiar  with  lions  themselves  ;  I  ride  upon  their  backs  ;  I  hold 
their  manes  and  use  them  for  bridles  ;  they  wag  their  tails  and  lick  my 
liands  in  flattery  of  me."  ^  This  familiarity  with  the  monarch  of  the 
forest  evidently  suggested  to  the  painter  the  subject  embraced  in  the 
next  picture,  wherein  the  boy-god  is  mounted  on  a  chariot  similar  to 
the  preceding,  of  feulty  design.  It  aptly  illustrates  the  unequal  yoking 
of  many  pairs  in  the  matrimonial  state.  Here  we  see  the  lion  with  the 
tiger  "  illy  matched,"  and  Cupid  undertaking  the  difficult  task  of  guid- 
ing the  team.    We  may  readily  anticipate  the  result.     NotAvithstandiug 


Swan   Car.  — Pompeii 


"  Thankes,  Cupid,  but  the  coach  of  Veuus  moves 
For  me  too  slow,  drawue  but  by  lazie  doves. 
I,  lest  my  journey  a  delay  should  fiud, 
Will  leape  into  the  chariot  of  the  winde." 
'  Thus  sings  Propertius  :  — 

"Let  snow-plumed  swans  forever  waft  thy  car, 
Nor  steeds  strong  thundering  whirl  thee  to  the  war." 

Elegy,  III,  11.  43,  44. 
^  Lucian,  the  well-known  Greek  writer,  was  a  native  of  Samosata  in  Syria.     His 
learning  obtained  for  him  the  registrarship  of  Egypt  under  the  Emperor  Aurelius.     He 
died  A.  D.  180,  aged  ninety  years. 


FANCIFUL   CIIABIOT-MAKING. 


187 


Mixed  Te am.  — Pompei 


the  solid  foothold  provided  for  him  by  an  ingenious  placement  of  the 
axle  and  wheels  at  the  rear  end  of  the  car,  we  conceive  that  with  such 

a  coupling  his 

'^\  ia-"^|y^7  ^^^^^^  ^®  char- 

ioteer must 
indeed  be 
sorely  taxed. 
The  lion  rep- 
resents the 
male  partner 
and  the  tiger 
the  female, — 
each  acting 
out  their  nat- 
ural tempers 
at  the  start,  ay,  before  starting.  It  is  evident  that  in  this  case  "  love 
can  never  run  smooth."  In  the  very  countenance  of  the  lion  defiance 
is  stamped ;  in  that  of  the  tiger,  self-will.  The  one  intends  to  lead, 
the  other  not  to  be  led,  —  a  pretty  pair  of  contraries.  The  result  is 
readily  foreseen.  ^ 

Possessing  but  little  taste  for  the  fabulous,  we  are  not  much  inclined 
to  speculate  about  the  griffin,  so  cleverly  harnessed  to  the  vehicle  here 
shown.       This  n^ 

symbolized  i^-<\. 

combination  of  ^^^■''^"/?(/-  \~^'^.^"^n  i^4#^^. 

two  different 
natures  exists 
only  in  fancy. 
Physiologists 
have  demon- 
strated that 
such  could  not 
live      in      our 

world.     Probably  the  ancients  borrowed  this  creation  from  the  Scrip- 
tural account  of  the  cherubim,  connected  with  the  religious  rites  of  the 


[GA    AND     GrIF 


*  "The  Carthageuiaus  adored  the  goddess  Juno  as  a  virgin  traveling  through  the 
heavens  in  a  car  drawn  by  lions."  —  Apuleius,  Golden  Ass,  B.  VI. 


188 


ITALIAN   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


Cak   of  Apollo.  — Herculaneum. 


Hebrews.^      The  winged  bulls  of  the  Assyrians,   which   the    recent 

researches  of  Layard,  Botta,  and  others  have  brought  to   light,  are 

supposed  to  have  had  the  same  origin :  like  as  the  cherubim  guarded 

the  gates  of  paradise,  so  likewise  the  winged  bulls  in  stone  were  placed, 

silent  sentinels,  before  the  palaces  of  royalty.     In  conformity,  then, 

with  the  idea  of  a  pro- 
tector, we  discover  the 
design  of  the  artist  in 
placing  an  incarnation  of 
strength  before  the  but- 
terfly, typical  of  weak- 
ness, which,  it  will  be 
noticed,  has  no  agency 
in  directing  the  footsteps 
of  the  hybrid  animal. 2 
The  above  illustration,  representing  a  car  of  Apollo,  is  copied  from 

a  picture  among  the  ruins  of  Herculancum,  upon  the  walls  of  an  edifice. 

The  general  design  presents  a  pleasing  cast,  compared  with  others  found 

in  this  volume,  and  is  loaded  with  the  instruments  of  music  sacred  to 

the  god.      The 

blanket  of  course 

is  intended  for  the 

protection   of  the 

instruments    from 

the  effects  of  the 

weather.  The  body 

of  this  vehicle  is 

exquisite  in  design. 

The  griffins  are  us- 
ually   represented 

as  being  sacred  to 

the  sun,  in  classical 

lan2:uao:e  mcanino; 

Apollo.  Plostellum,— Hekculaneum. 


'  See  Exodus,  ch.  xxxvi,  v.  G-9. 

*  We  may  observe,  en  passant,  tluit  the  Ijutterfly  represented  Psyclic,  tlie  mystical 
emblem  of  the  soul,  amoug  tlic  Greciaus.  The  grilliu  was  supposed  to  watcli  over 
hidden  treasures. 


MINEF.VA  AND  IIEB   CIIABIOT. 


189 


The  preceding  picture  represents  a  plostcllum,  or  child's  carriage, 
drawn  by  youths.  The  word  j^iostellmn  is  the  diminutive  of ])lmistru7n^ 
several  examples  of  which  will  be  found  in  this  volume.  The  design 
differs  widely  from  others  in  this  series,  and  has  likewise  been  rescued 
from  the  ruins  of  Herculane- 
um,  in  which  city  it  was  evi- 
dently made  a  child's  pla}'- 
thing. 

The  next  is  from  Hcrcula- 
neum,  intended  to  represent 
the  car  of  the  goddess  Miner- 
va, to  whom  the  owl  was  sa- 
cred. She  is  reputed  to  have 
been  the  daughter  of  Jupiter, 
born  without  a  mother  from 
the  brain  of  the  Thunderer,  and 
the  patroness  of  arms.  Homer 
says  that  on  a  certain  occasion 
she  "  let  flow  down  on  her 
father's  floor  her  dainty  robe  of 
variegated  hue,  which  she  her- 
self had  wrought  and  worked 
with  her  own  hands  ;  then  she, 
having  put  on  her  tunic, 
equipped  herself  for  the  tear- 
ful war  in  the  armor  of  cloud- 
compelling  Jove,  and  around 
her  shoulders  she  then  threw 
the  fringed  fegis,  dreadful. 
.  .  .  On  her  head  she  jDlaced 
the  four-crested  helmet,  with 
a  spreading  metal  ridge,  gold- 
en. .  .  .  She  then  stepped 
into  her  shining  chariot  with  her  feet,  and  took  her  spear,  heavy,  huge, 
and  sturdy,  with  which  she,  sprung  from  a  dread  sire,  subdues  the 
ranks  of  heroic  men,  with  whomsoever  she  is  wroth."  ^ 


'  Homer's  Iliad,  B.  V,  v.  734  et  scq.,  Boliu's  Edition. 


190 


ITALIAN    WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 


The  next  picture  represents  u  swan-necked  car,  drawn  by  mules  and 
driven  by  Love,  dug  out  of  the  ruins  of  Pompeii.  As  a  matter  of 
taste,  this  picture  is  not  of  much  importance.     We  suspect,  however, 

that  the  artist,  in  compli- 
ment to  the  character  of 
a  stubborn  mate,  or  in  re- 
taliation upon  the  winged 
deity  for  some  fancied 
neglect,  spent  some  time 
in  producing  it.     At  any 


as  previously  observed, 
in  thus  yoking  stubborn 
brutes  to  the  car  of  the 
fickle  god.  The  appear- 
ance of  the  wheels  carries 
infancv  and  wheels  were 


Mule   Car.  — Pompeii. 


us  back  to  the  period  when  art  was  in  its 
made  from  logs. 

The  figure  below  represents  the  car  of  Diana,  who,  according  to 
ancient  mythology,  was  the  reputed  daughter  of  Jupiter,  by  Latona, 
the  twin  sister  of  Apollo.  The  temple  of  this  goddess  at  Ephesus  was 
reckoned    one    of 

the  wonders  of  the  J^/-  J^      V^-atf^f^ 

world,  when  only  vi<'^^^^:=^^^\ 

seven  were  in  ex- 
istence. To  ap- 
pease the  wrath 
of  this  deity  re- 
quired the  sacri- 
fice of  Iphigenia, 
in  conformity  with 
an  oracle,  in  con- 
sequence of  Agamemnon's  having  by  mere  accident  killed  one  of  her 
stags. ^  A  chariot  similar  to  the  above  in  form,  in  mosaic,  may  be 
seen  in  the  Louvre.     It  is  drawn  by  four  horses,  in  which  is  mounted 

1  See  Ovid's  3Iet.,  B.  XII,  v.  24.  lu  the  Apollo  Gcallery  of  the  Louvre  are  shown  iu 
one  mosaic  several  bigas,  drawn  by  male  and  female  sheep,  deer,  goats,  lions,  dogs, 
boars,  and  tigers. 


or  Diana.  — Pompeii 


CUPID   AS   A    GHARIOT-DRIVEE. 


101 


a  female  holding  an  image  of  victory.  Following  the  chariot  are  two 
more  females,  one  carrying  a  cornucoj)ia  in  the  left,  the  other  liolding 
an  olive-branch  and  an  inverted  horn-of-plenty  in  the  right  hand. 

The  next  il- 
lustration was 
taken  from  the 
walls  of  the  tab- 
lium  of  the  per- 
istyle of  the 
Dioscuri/  the 
originalofwhich 
is  painted  on  a 
yellow  ground. 
In  this  instance 
we  see  a  rudely 
formed    chariot 

drawn  by  two  goats,  the  harness  and  other  furniture  being  wholly 
omitted,  —  a  thing  frequently  observed  in  ancient  relics.     The  chariot 


'emale   Goats   and  Ch akiot.  — Po mpe i 


Male   Goats  and  Chariot. —  Pompe 


'  Or  temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux.     These  brothers  are  reputed  to  have  freed  the 
seas  of  pirates. 


192 


ITALIAN   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


is  defective  in  several  points,  angles  taking  the  place  of  graceful  lines, 
characteristic  of  Grecian  art.  This,  however,  may  possibly  be  charged 
to  lack  of  skill  on  the  part  of  the  painter,  and  not  to  ignorance  or 
defect  in  the  mechanics  of  the  day.  In  sketching  the  goats  the  painter 
has  shown  more  skill,  and  succeeded  in  improving  upon  nature. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  beauty  and  gracefulness  in  which  they  appear. 
Another  fine  picture,  in  which  Cupid  still  acts  as  charioteer,  is  given 
on  the  preceding  page.  This  genius,  ancient  writers  inform  us,  was 
the  son  of  Venus,  who  took  upon  himself  the  direction  of  all  love 
affairs  among  mankind.  In  this  instance  we  find  him  mounted  in  a 
firmly  constructed  chariot,  endeavoring  to  force  along  an  unruly  pair 
of  male  goats.  What  is  symbolized  by  the  artist  we  have  not  been 
able  to  discover,  but  we  have  no  doubt  there  is  a  depth  of  meaning  in 
this  picture  of  much  interest,  could  we  unravel  it. 

The  annexed  figure  represents  a  picture  similar  to  the  foregoing, 
except  that  the  draft  animals  are  evidently  females,  and  the  chariot 
of  different  design  from  the  last.  This,  although  graceful  in  execu- 
tion, is  more  fragile  and 
less  calculated  to  en- 
dure hard  usage.  To 
govern  the  team  seems 
to  require  the  best  ef- 
forts of  the  teamster, 
while  the  animals  look 
decidedly  vicious.  May 
we  not  read  in  this,  as 
well  as  in  the  preceding 
picture,  true  specimens 
of  human  nature,  as  ex- 
hibited in  affairs  of  the 
heart  in  later  times  ? 
The  next  engraving  is 
a  biga  taken  from  an  allegorical  picture  found  in  good  preservation  at 
Herculaneum.  This,  singularly  enough,  in  the  original  is  represented 
as  being  drawn  by  two  sheep.  There  are  but  six  spokes  in  each 
wheel.  These  spokes,  as  well  as  some  of  the  Eoman,  are  said  to 
have  been  wood,  while  those  in  the  Grecian  wheels  were  usually 
metal.     Compared  with  the  rims  they  are  disproportionately  light,  — 


She-goats  and     Chariot.  — Pompei 


BAGING-CHABIOTS  FROM  HERCULANEUM. 


193 


tIGA.  —  HeRCULANEUM 


an  apparent  blemish  in 
many  ancient  wheels. 

The  next  chariot  is 
similar  to  the  last,  and 
like  it  with  sides  taper- 
ing from  front  to  rear, 
so  as  to  expose  the  pas- 
sengers to  view  while 
engaged  in  the  race,  for 
which  purpose  this  and 
the  previous  chariot 
were  evidently  intend- 
ed. In  common  with 
their  Grecian  ancestry,  the  people  entertained  a  like  fondness  for  the 

sports  of  the 
race  -  course. 
Indeed,  all 
the  more  ad- 
vanced na- 
tions of  antiq- 
uity appear  to 
have  had  a 
natural  weak- 
ness of  this 
kind,  even  go- 
ing so  far  as 
to  mingle 
pleasure  with 
the  homage 
professedly 
offered  to  the 
gods,  as  histo- 
ry abundantly 
proves. 

Racing-chariot.  — HERCULANEUM.  To  the  fore- 

going we  must  add  a  ludicrous  exhibition  of  a  chariot-race  of  Cupids, 
in  stucco,  on  the  wall  of  a  l)ath  at  Pompeii,  of  which  the  illustration  on 
next  page  forms  a  part.     The  adjuncts  consist  of  figures  of  Cupid  both 
13 


194 


ITALIAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


Grotesque   Chariot-race.  — Pompe 


on  foot  and  horseback.  In  the  design  much  ingenuity  is  displayed, 
with  the  evident  intent  of  producing  a  subject  which  woukl  excite 
laughter  in  the  beholder.      An   extravagantly   long   pole,    to   Avhich 

exceedingly  long- 
legged  animals  are 
hitched ,  suggests 
impossibilities  iu  the 
way  of  ever  winning 
a  prize  with  such  a 
team.  That  the  Pom- 
peiians  were  accustomed  to  the  race-course  is  evidenced  by  the  discov- 
ery of  a  circus  in  fresco,  as  it  must  have  appeared  shortly  before  the 
eruption  of  Vesuvius  occurred  that  buried  the  city,  the  amphitheater 
of  which  was  planted  with  trees. 

In  the  next  figure  we  have  a  plaustnun  which  appears  to  have  been 
in  common  use.  This  is  taken  from  a  small  picture  found  among  the 
ruins  of  Herculaneum.  The  wheels  are  what  is  known  as  tijmjoanum, 
that  is,  solid.  There 
is  nothing  peculiarly 
graceful  in  this  vehicle , 
yet  we  are  assured  that 
such  were  employed  in 
carrying  passengers, 
notwithstanding  that  it 
has  full  wheels. 

Among  the  ruins  of 
Pompeii  thus  far,  only 
two  examples  with  four 
wheels  have  been  found. 
One  is  drawn  by  mules, 
s  h  o  ^y  n  unharnc  ssed ,  i 
and  the  other  by  horses, 
engraving  on  next  page. 


The  Plaustruj 


Herculaneum, 


This  last,  minus  the  horses,  is  shown  in  the 
This  example  comes  much  nearer  our  idea  of 
what  constitutes  a  j^erfect  vehicle  than  anything  we  have  produced  in 
this  chapter  heretofore.  It  is  taken  from  a  painting  found  in  the  ante- 
room of  a  building  in  the  street  of  the  Lupanarc.     The  original  is 


See  Museo  Borbonico,  Vol.  IV,  A. 


POMPEII  AN  WINE-MEBCIIANT'S   WAGON. 


195 


rather  slovenly  done  ;  but  there  is  strong  evidence  that  the  Pompeiians 
not  only  nsed  four-wheeled  vehicles,  but  that  in  design  they  were  not 
to  be  despised.  An  inspection  of  the  drawing  will  show  that  a  great 
deal  of  genuine  ingenuity  and  artistic  taste  has  been  displayed  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  different  parts  in  their  adaptation  to  practical  use. 


•S^^^^ 


WiNE-w  AGON.— Pom PE] 


The  wheels  are  nearly  of  a  size  and  very  high,  —  peculiarities  fitting 
them  for  easy  draft.  There  is  a  recess  in  the  under  side  of  the  body 
to  allow  the  wheels  to  pass  beneath  in  turning,  and  the  whole  is  repre- 
sented in  the  painting  as  being  nicely  colored,  the  body  in  blue  and 
the  remainder  yellow.  The  capacious  skin,  stretched  the  full  length 
of  the  ])ody  and  supported  by  a  well-contrived  frame-work,  is  designed 
for  holding  the  wine  needed  for  the  vintner's  customers.  Notice  how 
readily  the  vender  fills  the  long  earthen  bottle  with  the  precious  liquid. 
This  picture  undoubtedly  represents  the  wagon  and  servants  of  a  Pom- 
peiian  wine-merchant,  proprietor  of  the  Lupanare,  who  seems  to  have 
dispensed  wine  in  the  thermopoUon,  or  front  shop.  The  other  picture, 
drawn  by  mules,  found  in  another  chamber  of  the  same  edifice, 
strengthens  this  opinion,  and  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  these  were 
the  "show-cards"  of  an  enterprising  business  man.' 


*  Among  other  curiosities,  the  excavators  found  on  the  walls  of  what  may  have 
been  a  carriage-shop  the  following  notice  :  "  Otiosis  hie  locus,  non  est.  Discede,  mora- 
tor!"  (This  is  no  place  for  idlers.  Loafer,  clear  out!)  Near  the  temple  of  Juno,  of 
which  an  account  has  recently  been  given,  was  brought  to  light  a  house  belonging  to 
some  millionuaire,  the  furniture  being  of  ivory,  bronze,  and  marble.  The  couches  of 
the  triclinium,  or  dining-room,  are  of  extreme  richness.  The  flooring  consists  of 
immense  mosaic,  well  preserved  in  parts,  of  which  the  center  represents  a  table  laid 
out  for  a  good  dinner.     In  the  middle,  on  a  large  dish,  may  be  seen  a  splendid  peacock, 


196  ITALIAN   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

Approaching  Pompeii  from  Naples  at  the  time  of  which  we  write, 
both  sides  of  the  road,  for  nearly  three  miles  Ijefore  entering  the  city, 
were  occupied  by  huts  and  public  monuments  intermixed  with  shops. 
In  front  of  the  latter  arcades  were  constructed,  affording  shelter  from 
the  rays  of  the  sun  or  inclemencies  of  the  weather.  The  agger,  or 
carriage-way,  as  the  road  is  called,  exhibits  the  worn  track  or  ruts  of 
former  years  just  as  distinctly  to-day  as  when  first  made.  These  ruts 
vary  from  three  feet  to  three  feet  six  inches  apart,  sometimes  four 
inches  deep.  The  wheels  of  the  chariots  seem  to  have  been  three 
inches  wide  on  the  tread.  In  no  part  allotted  to  chariots  is  the  way 
more  than  fourteen  feet,  and  this  has  foot-paths,  or  margines,  on  each 
side,  varying  from  four  to  six  feet,  elevated  above  the  road  about 
twelve  inches,  and  separated  therefrom  by  a  curb  and  guard-stones, 
raised  about  sixteen  inches,  and  placed  at  intervals  of  from  ten  to 
twelve  feet  asunder.  The  whole  road  was  paved  with  lava,  in  irregu- 
lar-shaped blocks  from  ten  to  fourteen  inches  thick,  originally  well 
joined  and  put  together.  Indeed,  its  state  of  preservation  sufficiently 
attests  the  perfection  of  the  principle  upon  which  it  was  constructed. 
On  these  roads,  though  excellent,  travel  was  comparatively  slow. 
Augustus  took  two  days  in  going  from  Rome  to  Prseneste,  a  distance 
of  thirty-five  miles ;  and  Horace  took  the  same  time  to  travel  forty- 
three  miles  in  going  from  Brudusium,  but  thinks  an  expeditious  trav- 
eler might  do  it  in  one  day. 

In  1239,  on  the  entrance  of  Frederic  II  into  Padua,  the  ladies  of  the 
highest  distinction  met  him  mounted  on  horses,  gayly  caparisoned, 
having  nothing  better  with  which  to  honor  him.  One  of  the  oldest 
relics,  properly  included  in  this  chapter,  is  the  carroccio,  two  poles  of 

with  its  tail  spread  out,  and  placed  back  to  back  with  another  bird  of  elegant  plumage. 
Around  these  are  arranged  lobsters,  one  of  which  holds  a  blue  egg  in  its  claw;  a 
second,  an  oyster,  ^v'hich  appears  to  be  ft-icasseed,  as  it  is  open  and  covered  with 
herbs ;  a  third,  a  rat  farci ;  and  a  fourth,  a  small  vase  filled  with  fried  grasshoppers. 
Next  comes  a  circle  of  dishes  of  fish,  interspersed  with  others  of  partridges,  hares, 
and  squirrels,  which  all  have  their  heads  placed  before  their  fore-feet.  Then  comes  a 
row  of  sausages  of  all  forms,  supported  by  one  of  eggs,  oysters,  and  olives,  which  in 
its  turn  is  surrounded  by  a  double  circle  of  peaches,  cherries,  melons,  and  other  fruits 
and  vegetables.  The  walls  of  the  triclinium  are  covered  with  fresco  paintings  of  birds, 
fruits,  flowers,  game,  and  flsh  of  all  kinds,  the  whole  interspersed  with  drawings  which 
lend  a  charm  to  the  entire  picture  uoL  <\asily  described.  On  a  table  of  rare  wood,  cov- 
ered and  inlaid  with  gold,  marble,  agate,  and  lapis  lazuli,  were  found  amphoroe  still 
containing  wine  and  some  goblets  of  onyx. 


CABROCCIO,   COCHIO,  AND  SEDAN.  197 

which,  captured  from  the  Florentines  in  1260,  are  now  planted  near 
the  cathedral  at  Sienna.  This  vehicle  is  descriljed  as  a  very  heavy 
four-wheeled  car,  surmounted  by  a  tall  staff,  painted  a  bright  red. 
On  the  staff,  crowned  with  a  gilt  ball,  floated  in  the  wind  the  standard 
of  the  city  of  Florence  in  the  day  of  its  prosperity.  Beneath  the 
standard  was  a  large  crucifix,  and  on  a  platform  in  front  of  the  car  was 
placed  a  few  of  the  most  valiant  soldiers,  and  on  another  platform  in 
the  rear  were  the  trumpeters  and  drummers ;  a  priest  standing  near 
the  crucifix  gave  absolution  to  the  dying.  The  car  was  drawn  by  four 
oxen  covered  with  scarlet  cloth  reaching  to  the  ground.  This  carroc- 
cio  is  supposed  to  have  been  an  inferior  substitute  for  the  ancient  war- 
chariot,  and  designed  as  an  emblematical  representative  both  of  the 
Florentine  religion  and  state. 

The  Italians  have  claimed  for  themselves  the  invention  of  coaches. 
This  matter  we  shall  consider  hereafter.  For  the  present  we  introduce 
the  cochio,  which  appeared  somewhere  about  1288,  or  several  hundred 
years  before  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth  in  Eng- 
land. The  covering 
of  this  singular-look- 
ing vehicle,  old  au- 
thors inform  us,  was 
red  matting,  under 
which,  in  the  fore 
part  of  the  body,  the  ladies  were  seated,  the  gentlemen  occupying  the 
rear  end.  It  will  be  seen,  in  the  progress  of  this  history,  that  in  car- 
riages of  this  kind  this  arrangement  was  generally  prevalent  among 
other  Continental  nations  during  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Sedans,  which  we  shall  meet  with  again  in  the  progress  of  this  work, 
are  noticed  by  Sandys  in  his  Travels.  He  says  that  "  the  carrosses 
[carriages]  is  incredible  that  are  kept  in  this  city  [Naples]  as  of  the 
segge)^  [sedans],  not  unlike  the  horse-litters,  but  carried  by  men. 
These  wait  for  fares  at  the  corners  of  the  streets,  as  watermen  do  at 
our  wharves,  wherein  those  that  will  not  foot  it  in  the  heat  are  borne 
(if  they  please,  unseen)  about  the  city."  ' 

There  are  two  sedans  in  the  Musee  de  Cluny,  probably  Italian,  — 

'  Sandys's  Travels,  p.  259,  London,  1G15. 


Itali  an   Cochio. 


198 


ITALIAN  WORLD    OK  WHEELS. 


Neapolitan   Sedan. 


one  with  the  panels  ornamentally  painted  and  gilded,  the  side  moldings 

Ijeino;  carved.  The  linino;s 
in  this  instance  are  green 
velvet,  accompanied  with 
long  green  fringes  pendent 
from  the  arm-re  sters  ;  the 
other  is  an  extremely  light 
article,  having  cloth  panels 
painted  a  blue  color,  the 
cushions  being  velvet. 

Strangers  on  their  first 
visit  to  Naples  are  surprised 
at  the  immense  number  of 
carriages  found  dashing  through  the  city  in  all  directions,  although  the 
citizens  generally  are  supposed  to  be  poor.  The  fact  is,  every  Nea- 
politan who  aspires  to  the  rank  of  gentleman  thinks  it  indispensably 
necessary  to  keep  some  sort  of  an  equipage,  even  should  he  pinch 
himself  in  other  points  of  domestic  economy.  Even  the  poorer  class 
have  a  passionate  fondness  for  riding,  which  they  gratify  to  a  great 
extent  by  clubbing  together  and  hiring  carriages  for  Sundays  and  the 
holidays,  which  occur  as  often  as  once  in  a  fortnight.  Among  these 
vehicles  are  the  extreme  in  quality  from  good  to  bad,  driven  at  a  fear- 
ful pace  along  the  lava-paved  streets,  the  rattling  of  which  might  be 
thought  the  perfection  of  noise,  were  it  not  in  some  degree  drowned 
by  the  shouts  of  the  motley  drivers  bawling  out  their  rates  of  fare. 
There  are  four  classes  of  hack  vehicles  in  Naples  :  the  canestra  or 
carettella,  the  corribolo,  t\ie  Jiower-pot  calesso,  and  il  calesso.  The  first 
is  similar  to  our  barouche,  the  second  is  a  sort  of  cab,  and  the  third  a 
nondescript  unlike  any  other  carriage  in  our  nomenclature,  —  the  sec- 
tion of  a  flower-pot  divided  perpendicularly  into  two  parts,  and  fas- 
tened to  a  wooden  axle-tree,  on  which  the  wheels  revolve,  without 
skeins  or  hub-boxes.  The  last-mentioned  is  the  most  popular  vehicle, 
—  the  carriage  of  the  people. 

The  calesso,  though  less  stylish  than  the  corribolo  and  the  flower- 
pot, is  capable  of  carrying  more  passengers,  and  is  in  more  respects 
than  one  considered  the  omnibus  of  the  Neapolitans.  With  some 
ingenuity,  and  sacrifice  of  comfort,  a  corribolo  may  be  made  to  carry 
four  besides  the   driver,   and  so   indeed  may  a  flower-pot ;    but  the 


CALESSO,    OR  ITALIAN  OMNIBUS.  199 

calesso  may  on  a  pinch  carry  a  round  dozen.  So  far  from  being  rare, 
it  is  a  common  thing  to  see  a  rickety  machine,  witii  three  men  and 
women  —  one  probably  a  fat  priest  —  on  a  seat,  and  two  or  three  more 
on  tlieir  laps,  or  sitting  in  the  bottom,  with  some  of  their  legs  dangling 
in  front  of  the  wheels ;  three  more  hanging  on  behind ;  a  boy  or  a 
sturdy  lazzarone  seated  on  the  shafts,  and  a  couple  of  small  children 
slung  in  a  net  beneath  the  axle-tree ;  to  which  must  be  added  the 
driver,  who  either  stands  erect  amid  the  passengers  behind,  flourishing 
his  whip  over  the  heads  of  those  within,  or  else  sitting  in  front  on  the 
shafts,  with  his  legs  hanging  over  the  side.  The  oddest  thing  attached 
to  a  calesso  is  the  net  with  the  children,  and  the  multitude  of  legs 
dangling  on  all  sides.  A  traveler  gives  us  the  following  picture  of 
what  he  saw  on  the  road  to  Pompeii :  As  he  approached  a  wine-shop 
by  the  roadside,  he  "  saw  a  calesso  turn  and  drive  back  at  speed,  and 
on  getting  nearer  saw  a  female  peasant,  dressed  in  gala  clothes,  tear- 
ing her  hair  and  beating  her  bosom  in  a  fearful  manner.  What  was 
the  matter?  The  calesso,  crowded  as  usual  on  such  occasions,  was 
going  to  a  fesia,  or  fair,  at  the  town  of  Nocera  d'  Pagani,  and  on  stop- 
ping at  the  wine-house  to  refresh,  it  was  discovered  that  the  net  below 
with  a  little  boy  in  it  was  missing.  The  rope  that  held  it  had  given 
way,  and  as  the  festive  party  were  probably  (as  is  usual  with  them 
when  exhilarated  by  riding)  all  singing  at  the  tops  of  their  voices,  the 
cries  of  the  child  were  never  heard.  The  atflicted  mother  was  sure 
the  guaglionciello  was  killed ;  but  presently  a  joyful  shout  was  heard 
along  the  road,  and  the  calesso,  returning  in  company  with  another, 
brought  back  the  little  urchin,  covered,  indeed,  and  almost  choked 
with  dust,  but  otherwise  safe  and  sound." 

This  calesso  is  generally  drawn  by  two  horses,  one  inside  and 
another  outside  the  shafts,  harnessed  in  the  rudest  manner  with  ropes, 
very  little  leather  being  seen.  Some  of  these  vehicles  are  furnished 
with  a  top  of  untanned  hide,  which  is  spread  over  the  heads  of  the 
"insides,"  but  there  are  no  springs  beneath  the  body,  it  being  hung  off 
on  thorough-braces  of  leather.  The  driver,  who  is  usually  a  man  of 
some  humor,  considers  it  a  part  of  his  duty  to  amuse  his  passengers, 
as  well  as  for  his  pecuniary  interest.  On  holidays  these  calessos  are 
set  off  with  branches  of  trees,  flowers,  etc.,  which,  added  to  the  gaudy 
dresses  of  the  occupants,  make  the  turnout  look  sufficiently  gay  and 
pleasing  to  the  beholder. 


200 


ORIENTAL    WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

CHESTESE,    INDIAN,    AND    TARTAR    CARRIAGE    REPOSITORY. 


A  city  where  the  ■world  does  not  run  on  wheels  is  commercially  dead. 

Anon. 


LTHOUGH  the 
Chinese  claim 
for  their  empire 
great  antiquity, 
still  they  have 
very  few  land- 
carriages,  owing 
to  the  many  riv- 
ers and  canals  which  intersect  it,  making  water  conveyance  more  con- 
venient and  much  more  economical.  The  Chinese  sometimes  travel 
on  horseback,  but  it  is  said  the  riders  grudge  the  animals  the  proper 
amount  of  food,  and  they  are  consequently  miserable,  stunted  creatures. 
Their  best  mode  of  traveling  is  in  a  sedan-chair,  the  streets  of  some 
cities  being  so  narrow  that  even  this  has  to  be  set  down  at  the  gate, 
while  the  visitor  pursues  his  journey  on  foot.  Upon  the  shoulders  of 
two  bearers  the  poles  are  placed,  which  are  extremely  elastic,  in  shape 
like  the  shafts  of  a  ofig-.  As  the  bearers  move  forward  with  a  measured 
step,  the  motion  is  almost  imperceptible  to  the  occupant.  Instead  of 
panels,  the  sides  and  back  of  the  chair  consist  of  woolen  cloth  for  the 
sake  of  lightness,  with  a  covering  of  oil-cloth  against  rain.  The  front 
is  closed  by  a  hanging-blind  of  the  same  material,  in  lieu  of  a  door, 
with  a  circular  aperture  of  gauze  to  see  through.  Private  individuals 
are  restricted  to  two  bearers,  ordinary  magistrates  to  four,  and  the 
viceroys  to  eight,  while  the  emperor  alone  is  great  enough  to  require 
sixteen ! 


ANCIENT  CHINESE  CARRIAGES. 


201 


It  will  readily  be  seen  from  the  preceding  remarks  that  two-wheeled 
vehic]es  are  the  most  appropriate  for  China.  Consequently  the  cab, 
which  accompanies  the  initial  letter  to  this  chapter,  finds  most  favor  in 
the  eyes  of  the  natives.  To  a  stranger  the  jolting  in  these  cabs  is  very 
annoying  on  rough  roads,  there  being  no  springs  attached  to  them,  but 
on  a  good  road  they  answer  tolerably  well,  the  mules  or  ponies  scarcely 
requiring  a  whip,  having  been  so  skillfully  educated  that  they  perfectly 
well  understand  the  driver.  It  is  astonishing  how  the  Chinese  manage 
their  diminutive  animals  by  kindness.  Refractory  mules,  which  could 
not  be  induced  to  go  into  the  shafts  by  threats,  are  as  obedient  as  dogs 
at  a  word  from  a  Chinaman.  Some  of  these  cabs  are  handsomely 
finished,  although  clumsily  constructed. 

We  are  told  that  in  the  eleventh  century  the  Chinese  had  shown 
some  ability  in  the  construction  of  vehicles.  Drawings  of  those  used 
by  the  ancient  rulers  in  their  festivities,  made  by  native  artists,  have 
been  preserved.  These  have  something  of  an  antique  appearance,  but 
are  of  simple  construction,  drawn  by  four  horses  abreast.  In  the 
vehicle  sits  an  emperor,  an  ofiicer 
of  second  rank,  whip  in  hand,  driv- 
ing, while  the  coachman  holds  the 
reins.  The  emperor  is  seated  on 
the  left  or  near  side,  that  being  the 
place  of  honor  among  the  Chinese. 
The  functions  of  the  royal  coach- 
man were  then  of  much  considera- 
tion. Some  of  the  king's  carriages 
had  but  two  wheels,  while  others 


lOYAt   Cart 


202 


OBIENTAL    WORLD   01^  WHEELS. 


had  four.  They  were  entered  at  the  front,  this  part  of  the  carriage 
being  frequently  covered  with  the  skin  of  a  tiger  or  some  other  wild 
animal. 

The  next  drawing  represents  the  emperor's  coachman  seated  in 
another  carriage,  in  royal  livery,  perhaps  in  the  discharge  of  some 
special  duty  in  his  sovereign's  ser- 
vice. The  wheels  of  these  vehicles 
—  as,  indeed,  are  all  made  in  the 
Celestial  kingdom  —  have  an  un- 
usually heavy  set  of  felloes,  giving 


Coachman   of   the   Emperor   of   China. 

them  a  look  of  solidity  very  deceptive. 

"  The  ancient  sovereigns  of  China,"  Guignes  tells  us,  "  had  still 
another  carriage,  which  they  call  tching.  It  was  drawn  by  sixteen 
horses,  which  ftict  served  to  show  its  superiority.  They  also  used 
this  word  to  distinguish  the  house  of  a  prince,  by  the  expression  of 
one  hundred  sixteen-horse  chariots  {pe-lching),  a  prince  not  being 
allowed  l^y  law  to  own  more  than  sixteen  hundred  horses.  For  the 
same  reason  one  thousand  sixteen-horse  chariots  (tsien-tching)  desig- 
nates the  royal  house.  In  those  ancient  times,  eight  hundred  ftimilies 
of  the  community  were  obliged  to  furnish  one  sixteen-horse  chariot, 
with  three  captains,  equipped  with  casque  and  shield,  and  twenty-two 
foot-soldiers." 

It  is  but  recently  that  a  railway,  running  from  Woo-sung  to  Shang- 
hai, has  been  laid,  from  the  terminus  of  which  a  single  omnil)us  of 
European  construction  carries  passengers  to  different  parts  of  the  city. 


JAPANESE  JIN-EIK-SH  A.  — INDIAN  HE  CCA. 


203 


There  is  a  vehicle  in  Japan  called  njin-eik-sha,  which  Bishop  Wiley 
says  looks  very  nuich  like  a  large  American  baby-wagon.  It  is  gener- 
ally used  for  travel  by  the  natives,  and  is  a  special  favorite  with  visit- 
ors to  that  country.  It  is  drawn  by  men  instead  of  horses  at  an 
exceedingly  quick  pace,  at  an  expense  of  about  ten  cents  an  hour. 
They  are  described  as  lacing  very  easy  and  pleasant  to  ride  in.  The 
carts  on  the  streets  have  pauc- wheels  in  the  primitive  fashion,  cows 
taking  the  place  of  horses  as  beasts  of  burden. 

Much  of  the  travel  in  India  is  by  palanquins,  borne  either  by  men 
or  on  the  backs  of  elephants.  There  is,  however,  a  limited  number 
of  carriages,  generally  of  rude  construction,  judging  from  the  display 
of  models  seen  by  the  writer  in  one  of  the  rooms  in  the  Museum, 
South  Kensington,  London,  on  our  visit  there  in  1873.  Some  of 
these  carriages  are  known  as  the  tonga,  hecca,  etc.,  all  of  which  have 


Indian  Hecca, 


wooden  axle-trees.  Formerly  the  prejudices  of  the  natives  against 
animal  fat  stood  in  the  way  of  greasing,  consequently  when  on  the 
move  they  were  apt  to  be  more  musical  than  otherwise  entertaining 
either  to  man  or  beast.  Under  British  rule,  however,  the  people  have 
been  compelled  to  use  olive-oil,  which  has,  in  some  degree  at  least, 
improved  matters. 


204  ORIENTAL    WORLD    OK   WHEELS. 

On  the  preceding  page  is  an  engraving  of  the  hecca,  or  hack-cart,  in 
which,  sitting  tailor-fashion,  is  seen  a  haboo,  or  writer,  on  his  way  to 
his  kutcherf/,  or  office.  This  kind  of  vehicle  is  not  the  most  easy  in 
which  to  ride,  as  it  is  hung  off  to  some  disadvantage  without  springs. 
The  motion  imparted  to  the  veliicle  by  the  movements  of  the  horse  in 
the  shafts  adds  much  to  the  passenger's  misery,  as  it  occasionally  car- 
ries his  feet  in  close  proximity  to  the  driver's  head.  Even  the  driver 
is  in  peril  of  his  life,  perched  as  he  is  in  a  dangerous  position  over  the 
heels  of  the  horse,  liable  at  any  moment  to  fall  under  the  ponderous 
wheels. 

One  of  the  most  useful  vehicles  in  India  is  the  Gujerat  village-cart, 
employed  in  agriculture.  Without  so  much  as  a  single  mile  of  made 
road  in  the  whole  country,  these  carts,  made  to  track  so  as  to  fit  the 
ruts  exactly,  move  as  if  on  rails,  drawn  about  from  village  to  village 
by  one   or  two   pairs  of  bullocks,  carrying  heavy  and  bulky  loads. 


Gujerat   Village-cart. 

weighing  from  twelve  to  eighteen  hundred  pounds.  These  carts  are 
all  built  after  a  fixed  model.  The  frame  and  other  portions  are  all 
strongly  mortised  and  fastened  by  wooden  pins,  the  pole  extending 
from  the  axle-tree  to  the  yoke  by  which  the  bullocks  draw  the  vehicle. 
The  pole  is  formed  of  two  pieces  of  tough  wood  running  separate  from 
or  near  each  of  the  wheels,  uniting  in  front  in  a  point,  acting  as  a 
powerful  lever  in  turning  or  moving  the  cart.  Round  about,  and 
forming  the  side  of  the  cart,  there  is  attached  by  ropes  a  plaited 
basket-work,  made  of  cotton-plant  stalks. 


INDIAN  BULLOCK-TRANSIT  WAGON.  205 

The  wheels  are  the  most  important  parts  of  the  whole,  exhibiting 
some  degree  of  mechanical  skill  in  their  construction.  Four  equal-sized 
segments  of  the  hard  wood  of  the  acacia  arabica  tree  are  contained  in 
the  rim,  which  is  four  inches  broad  at  the  tread,  forming  a  circle  of 
from  four  to  five  feet  diameter.  The  axles  are  iron,  working  in 
wrought-iron  boxes.  It  is  very  rare  to  find  iron  nails  used  in  fastening 
the  different  pieces  together,  but  the  mortising  is  so  skillfully  done 
that  these  carts  last  for  years. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  picture  the  feet  of  the  bullocks  are  not 
visible,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  walk  in  the  ruts  made  by  the 
wheels.  This  they  must  do  ;  and  the  whole  secret  of  the  facility  and 
speed  with  which  they  travel  depends  on  this.  The  ruts,  when  once 
formed,  remain  as  permanent  roadways,  particularly  in  the  black  cot- 
ton soil.  They  are  about  five  inches  wide  and  as  many  deep.  Very 
little  care  is  taken  to  preserve  these  ruts.  The  earth  itself  becomes 
so  hard  in  the  dry  season  (and  it  is  only  then  these  carts  are  used) 
that  a  little  filling  in  of  loose  earth  occasionally  by  the  poor  villagers, 
in  places  too  deeply  worn,  is  all  the  repairing  needed.  For  this  labor 
the  workmen  get  a  few  pice  from  the  cartmen,  with  which  they  are 
content. 

There  is  a  bullock-transit  carriage  in  India,  mounted  on  four  wheels, 
hung  off  on  heavy  springs,  with  an  arched  double  roof,  the  interior  of 
which  is  six  feet  long,  three  wide,  and  four  high,  with  windows  in  the 
sides  and  ends  furnished  with  blinds  inside  and  sun-shades  on  the 
outside.  A  projecting  roof  in  front  protects  the  driver  against  rain 
and  the  sun's  rays.  The  entrance  is  from  the  rear.  Within  the  car- 
riage arc  a  number  of  pockets  for  holding  water  and  '"  spirits,"  which 
some  think  refreshing.  A  netting  overhead  serves  for  the  stowage 
of  blankets,  books,  etc.  About  a  foot  above  the  fixed  floor  is  a  mov- 
able one  of  boards  laid  crosswise,  beneath  which  baggage  is  stowed, 
and  on  which  a  mattress  is  laid,  several  small  pillows  for  the  head,  and 
packing  around  the  sides  protects  the  knees,  elbows,  etc.,  against 
bruising,  as  the  passenger  is  driven  over  rough  roads.  Here  he  can 
stretch  himself  at  ease,  and  when  tired  of  reclining  has  only  to  throw 
back  one  end  of  his  bedding,  take  up  two  or  three  boards  of  the  mov- 
able floor,  put  his  feet  in  the  opened  space,  and  then  with  the  bedding 
at  his  back  ride  in  comfort.  The  rate  of  travel  is  from  four  and  a  half 
to  five  miles  the  hour,  with  relays  at  the  end  of  every  four  miles. 


206  OBIENTAL   WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 

Traveling  night  and  day,  these  carriages  make  from  ninety  to  one 
hundred  miles  in  the  twenty-four. 

The  car  of  Juggernaut  is  too  important  to  be  omitted  in  this  collec- 
tion. A  late  traveler  thus  notices  it :  "  At  the  beginning  of  the  rain 
season,  which  is  in  June,  .  .  .  then  comes  the  grand  procession. 
The  car  is  twenty  feet  high,  constructed  like  a  pyramid,  and  is  twenty 
feet  square.  It  is  mounted  on  twenty-four  wheels,  each  wheel  four 
feet  in  diameter  and  more  than  a  foot  thick.  These  wheels  are  arranged 
in  three  rows,  eight  wheels  in  a  row,  and  placed  two  feet  apart,  so 
that  whoever  falls  under  them  is  crushed.  The  exterior  of  the  car  is 
elaborately  carved,  and  on  a  curtain  is  painted  a  picture  of  the  proces- 
sion. At  the  front  of  the  car  are  two  wooden  horses,  and  on  either 
side  are  the  images  of  men  and  women.  Upon  this  the  owl-like  image 
of  Juijofernaut  is  placed,  amid  the  sound  of  conch-shells  and  the  shouts 
of  the  multitude,  and  a  hundred  thousand  people  struggle  with  each 
other  for  the  privilege  to  draw  the  '  infernal  machine.'  In  the  excite- 
ment which  follows,  some  fall  beneath  the  wheels  and  are  crushed  to 
death,  while  the  more  fanatical  deliberately  throw  themselves  beneath 
the  ponderous  car,  hoping  thereby  to  merit  heaven," 

According  to  Justin,  the  Scythians  as  a  nation  were  ignorant  of  the 
arts  and  sciences.^  A  much  older  authority  says,  "They  neither  have 
cities  nor  fortifications,  but  carry  their  houses  with  them,  Avho  are  all 
equestrian  archers,  living  not  from  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  but  from 
cattle,  and  whose  dwellings  are  wagons." ^  The  country  is  represented 
as  being  so  cold  in  the  winter,  and  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus  freezes 
so  hard,  that  the  Scythians  "lead  their  armies  and  drive  their  chariots 
over  the  ice  to  the  Sindians  on  the  other  side." 3  These  "barbarians," 
as  they  were  called,  like  their  successors  the  Tartars,  built  their  houses 

'  "Uxores  liborosque  secum  in  plaustris  veliimt  quibus  coriis  imbrium  hyemsque 
causa  tectis,  pro  domibus  utuutur."  —  Justin,  B.  II,  cli.  2. 
"  Campestas  melius  Scytlise, 

(Quorum  plaustra  vagas  rite  trahuut  domes) 

Vivunt ;  et  rigidi  Getaj ; 

Immetata  quibus  juugera  liberas 

Fruges  et  Cercrem  ferunt : 

Nee  cultura  placet  lougior  anuua, 

Defuuctumque  laboribus 

iEquali  recreat  sorte  vicarius."  —  Horace,  B.  Ill,  Ode  24. 
«  Herod.,  B.  IV,  46.  ^  Herod.,  B.  IV,  28. 


SCYTHIAN  MOVABLE  DWELLINGS. 


207 


on  wheels,  but  likewise  had  rude  ctirts  and  even  wagons.  Indeed, 
Taylor  says  "  their  habitations  were  nothing  but  coaches  "  ;  that  "  from 
these  people  our  coaches  had  first  originall " ;  and  that  "  with  them 
the  world  runnes  on  wheelcs  continually."  ^  These  movable  houses 
were  differently  constructed.  One  kind  consisted  of  a  strong  flat 
floor,  on  the  sides  of  which  poles  were  inserted,  and  round  these  the 
skins  of  animals  were  drawn,  rendering  them  very  comfortable  for 


AN   House   on    Wheels. 


dwellings.  On  some  the  poles  or  bows  were  arched,  and  when  a  mat- 
ting was  spread  over  them  they  looked  like  an  old-fashioned  bee-hive 
made  of  straw;  when  these  moved  over  the  plains  in  columns,  they 
presented  a  very  picturesque  and  interesting  sight  —  in  the  distance. 
The  hoop-sticks  before  mentioned  as  arched  over  the  body,  supporting 
the  covering,  all  entered  the  flooring  at  the  ends,  except  two  at  the 
sides  (one  on  each  side),  which  being  brought  down  over  the  wheels, 
held  all  secure.  A  space  left  open  in  front  answered  the  purpose  of 
a  door.  In  these  the  women  lived,  following  their  domestic  employ- 
ments. Herodotus  tells  us  that  some  Amazonian  females  interposed 
this  mode  of  habitation  as  an  objection  to  their  living  in  Scythia  as  the 
wives  of  certain  men  of  that  country  who  ofiered  them  marriage.^ 

The  axles  of  these  vehicles  were  usually  made  of  oak,  and  to  these 
the  body  was  rudely  listened  by  cords,  twigs,  or  wooden  pins,  no 
metal  of  any  kind  being  used.  For  many  centuries,  in  carriages  thus 
constructed,  long  and  comparatively  rapid  journeys  were  made ;  and 


See  The.  World  mnnes  on  Wheeles ;  or,  Oddes  betwixt  Carts  and  Ooaches,  p.  17. 
Ilcrod.,  B.  IV,  114. 


208 


ORIENTAL    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


Tart  ab   Cart. 


SO  slio-ht  has  been  the  effect  of  time  in  altering?  this  ancient  kind  of 

mechanism,  that  simihir 
vehicles  have  been  de- 
scribed as  not  uncommon 
in  our  day  among  their 
successors  tlie  Tartars,  and 
the  natives  of  some  of  the 
more  southern  parts  of 
Russia,  where  it  might 
have  been  expected  that 
modern  improvements 
would  have  suggested 
greater  progress.  A  child's 
cradle  seems  to  have  fur- 
nished the  pattern  for  the  cart,  of  which  we  give  an  illustration,  the 
rockers  serving  as  goose-necks  in  hanging  up  the  body.  These  rockers, 
after  being  slipped  on  the  ends  of  the  axle-trees,  had  an  upright  added 
to  strengthen  the  structure,  both  being  held  in  place  by  linch-pins. 
The  harness  is  of  the  most  primitive  kind,  and  very  simple. 

In  the  punishment  of  condemned  false  prophets,  a  singular  custom 
was  observed.  Herodotus  says,  "When  they  [the  Scythians]  had 
filled  a  wagon  with  ftigots,  and  yoked  oxen  to  it,  having  tied  the  feet 
of  the  offenders  and  bound  their  hands  behind  them,  and  gagged  them, 
they  enclosed  them  in  the  midst  of  the  fagots  ;  then  having  set  fire  to 
them,  they  terrify  the  oxen  and  let  them  go.  Many  oxen,  therefore, 
are  burnt  with  the  prophets,  and  many  escape  very  much  scorched, 
when  the  pole  is  burnt  asunder."  ^ 

The  funeral  ceremonies  of  this  rude  people  deserve  mention.  At 
the  death  of  a  subject,  his  body  was  laid  in  a  chariot,  and  carried  hy 
the  nearest  relatives  about  among  their  friends,  the  attendants  and  the 
dead  body  all  having  the  like  attentions  paid  them  for  forty  days,  after 
Avhich  the  body  was  buried.  But  when  the  king  paid  the  debt  of 
nature,  they  went  through  certain  prescribed  ceremonies  for  a  year, 
when  fifty  of  his  choicest  servants  and  fifty  of  his  finest  horses  were 
strangled,  these  last  disemboweled,  and,  the  cavities  being  stuffed  with 
chaff,  were  then  sewed  up,     "  Then  having  placed  the  half  of  a  wheel. 


Herod.,  B.  IV,  69-73. 


POVEBTY  OF  TABTAB  MECHANISM.  209 

with  its  concave  side  uppermost,  on  two  pieces  of  wood,  and  the  other 
half  on  two  other  pieces  of  wood,  and  having  fixed  many  of  these  in 
the  same  manner,  then  having  tlirust  thick  pieces  of  wood  through  the 
horses  lengthwise  up  to  the  neck,  they  mount  them  on  the  half- wheels  ; 
and  of  these  the  foremost  part  of  the  half-wheels  supports  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  horses,  and  the  hinder  part  supports  the  belly  near  the 
thighs,  but  the  legs  on  both  sides  are  suspended  in  the  air ;  then  hav- 
ing put  bridles  and  bits  on  the  horses,  they  stretch  them  in  front,  and 
fasten  them  to  a  stake ;  they  then  mount  upon  a  horse  each  one  of  the 
fifteen  young  men  that  have  been  strangled,  mounting  them  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner :  when  they  have  driven  a  straight  piece  of  wood  along 
the  spine  as  far  as  the  neck,  but  a  part  of  this  wood  projects  from  the 
bottom,  they  fix  it  into  a  hole  bored  in  the  other  piece  of  wood  that 
passes  through  the  horse.  Having  placed  such  horsemen  round  the 
monument,  they  depart."  ^ 

The  Tartars  in  modern  times  do  not  show  much  improvement.  "The 
oxen  and  horses  are  small  and  poor,  and,  judging  from  their  vehicles, 
one  would  conclude  that  mechanical  ingenuity  could  not  be  a  promi- 
nent element  in  the  composition  of  this  people,  for  the  first  maker  of 
wheels  could  not  have  contrived  them  with  joints  farther  apart  than 
those  of  the  Tartar  wagons,  or  have  succeeded  in  getting  them  further 
from  a  circle,  unless  he  had  premeditated  an  octagonal."  2  When  on 
the  move  they  make  such  a  horrid  creaking  that  the  sound  thereof  has 
become  proverbially  "  Tartar  music." 

'  Tacitus,  Germ.,  ch.  46.  '^  Ditson's  Tour  to  the  Caucasus,  p.  125. 


U 


210 


FBENGII  WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


CHAPTEK    VIII. 

FRENCH    CAREIAGES,    INCLUDING    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATIONS. 

"  Champs  Elysees  ;  time,  past  five  ; 
There  go  the  carriages  —  look  aUve  ! 
Everything  that  man  can  drive, 
Or  his  inventive  skill  contrive  — 

Dog-cart,  droschke,  and  smart  coupe, 
A  disobligeante  quite  bulky, 
French  idea  of  a  Yankee  sulky." 

Bret  Harte's  Tale  of  a  Pony. 


HE  Gauls,  "in  their 
journeys  and 
flights,"  says  an 
old  historian, 
"  use  chariots 
drawn  with  two 
horses  which  car- 
ry a  charioteer 
and  soldier,  and 
when  they  meet 

horsemen  in  the  battle,  they  fall  upon  their  enemies  with  their  muni- 
ans  [a  kind  of  dart]  ;  then  quitting  their  chariots,  they  rush  to  it  with 
their  swords.  There  are  some  of  them  that  so  despise  death  that  they 
fight  naked,  with  something  only  about  their  loins."  ^  We  conclude 
that,  as  among  other  rude  nations  of  ancient  times,  the  vehicles  were 
chiefly  war-chariots,  although  it  appears  from  history  that  the  Gauls 
did  have  rude  wagons  of  various  kinds  suited  to  their  agricultural  pur- 
suits. What  these  were  is  now  unknown,  and  it  would  be  folly  to 
speculate  where  so  much  ignorance  prevails.     We  only  kuow  that  the 


Died.  Siculus,  B.  V,  cli.  2. 


WOMEN  FORBIDDEN-  TO    USE   CABRIAGES.  211 

introduction  of  carriages  into  Europe  is  claimed  by  Italy,  France,  and 
Germany  alike,  and  perhaps  with  equal  pretensioni:'. 

Rees,  in  his  Encyclopaedia,  tells  us  that,  "  Some  have  thought  from 
the  etymology  of  the  word  coach  to  determine  the  country  in  which  it 
was  invented ;  but  it  would  be  much  easier  to  ascertain  the  origin  of 
the  term,  did  we  know  by  whom  close  carriages  were  invented.  Me- 
nange -makes  it  Latin,  and  by  a  far-fetched  demonstration  traces  it 
from  vehiculum.  Junius  derives  it  from  oma,  to  carry.  Watchler 
seeks  its  origin  in  the  German  word  kutten,  to  cover;  and  Lye,  in  the 
Belgic  koetfen,  to  lie  along,  as  it  properly  signifies  a  couch  or  chair. 
Others  endeavor  to  prove  that  the  word  is  of  Hungarian  extraction, 
and  that  it  had  its  rise  from  a  village  in  the  province  of  Weisell^erg, 
which  is  at  j^resent  called  Kitsee,  but  was  formerly  known  by  the 
name  of  Kotsee,  or  Kotzi,  and  that  this  traveling  machine  was  even 
there  invented.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  or  even  earlier,  a  covered  carriage  was  known  under 
the  name  of  Hungarian  carriage." 

Carriages,  as  we  have  shown,  have  always  existed  in  some  form 
since  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs,  and  with  the  progress  of  civilization 
have  increased  and  improved  among  difierent  nations.  It  is  true  that 
in  the  darker  ages  they  seem  to  have  nearly  disappeared ;  but  with  the 
revival  of  intelligence  they  reappear  again  in  new  forms,  suited  to 
diversified  tastes,  until,  as  Ave  find  in  our  day,  they  are  almost  innu- 
merable. 

As  early  as  1294,  by  a  public  ordinance  of  Philip  the  Fair  for  sup- 
pressing luxury,  citizens'  wives  were  forbidden  to  use  carriages,  under 
severe  penalties,^  but  this  restriction  was  not  long  continued.  In  the 
"  Anciennes  Chroniques  de  Flandres  "  is  an  illustration  of  the  flight  of 
Emergard,  wife  of  Salvard,  Lord  of  Rousillon,  which  is  probably  the 
oldest  representation  of  a  Gallic  carriage  extant.  The  lady,  according 
to  an  ancient  custom,  sits  sideways  in  her  seat,  accompanied  by  her 
two  attendants,  one  probably  a  waiting-maid,  the  other  the  "fool 
of  quality."     The  body  is  ornamented  with  carved  figures,  the  side 

'  "  Premibrcment  nulle  bourgean  ii'aura  cliar."  Aud  again,  "  Les  voitures  sont  plus 
modernes  qu'ou  ne  rimagine  coramunemeut.  L'ou  u'eu  comploit  que  deux  sous  Fran- 
cois I,  I'uue  a  la  reiue,  I'autre  a  Diane  fille  naturelle  de  Henri  II.  Les  dames  les 
plus  qualifloes  ue  tardereut  pas  a  s'en  procurer :  cela  ne  rendit  pas  le  uombre  d'equipages 
fort  considerable."  —  Encyclopedia. 


212 


FRENCH   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS, 


curtains,  covering  a  iDOW-top,  being  nicely  rolled 


up.  This  "  charri- 
ette,"  or  whatever 
called,  was  drawn 
by  two  horses, 
guided  by  a  mount- 
ed postilion.  The 
paper  from  which 
our  engraving  is 
taken  is  dated  1347 , 
and  may  be  found 
in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, i 

Long  after  this 
litters  and  sedans  ^ 
were  in  common 
use  among  Conti- 
nental nations.  As 
early  as  1399,  Is- 
abella of  Bavaria 
made  her  entry  into 
Paris  in  a  litter. 
This  seems  to  have 
been  used  by  ladies 
exclusively.  An 
old  chronicler  thus 
relates  the  entr}'^ : 

"On  Sunday,  the 
twentieth  day  of 
June,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1399, 
there  were  such  crowds  of  people  in  Paris  it  was  marvelous  to  see 
them :  and  on  this  Sunday  the  noble  ladies  of  France,  who  were  to 


>  See  MS.  Beg.  16,  F.  Ill,  fol.  11,  70. 

2  111  the  valley  of  the  Meuse,  France,  is  a  town  called  Sedan,  which  has  been  ren- 
dered famous  by  the  surrender  of  Napoleon  III  to  the  army  of  Prussia  in  the  late  war. 
It  is  likewise  noted  as  the  birthplace  of  Marshal  Turenne,  and  furthermore,  a  corre- 
spondent of  the  New  Yorlc  Tribune  says,  "  It  is  also  known  as  the  place  where  sedan- 
chairs  originated."  This  last  assertion  will  undoubtedly  raise  a  smile  on  the  counte- 
nance of  the  reader  at  the  absurdity  of  the  writer. 


QUEEN  ISABELLA   EN  TEES  PARIS. 


213 


accompany  the  queen,  assembled  in  the  afternoon  at  Saint  Denis,  with 
such  of  the  nobility  as  were  appointed  to  lead  the  litters  of  the  queen 
and  her  attendants.  The  citizens  of  Paris,  to  the  immber  of  twelve 
hundred,  were  mounted  on  horseback,  dressed  in  uniforms  of  green 
and  crimson,  and  lined  each  side  of  the  road.  Queen  Joan  and  her 
daughter,  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  entered  Paris  first,  about  an  hour 
after  noon,  in  a  covered  litter,  and,  passing  through  the  great  street 
of  Saint  Denis,  went  to  the  palace,  where  the  king  was  waiting  for 


Litter.  —  Isabella's   Entrance   into   Paris. 

them,  and  this  day  they  went  no  fiirther.  The  Queen  of  France,  at- 
tended by  the  Duchess  of  Berry,  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  the  Duch- 
ess of  Touraine,  the  Duchess  of  Loraine,  the  Countess  of  Nevers,  the 
Lady  of  Coucy,  with  a  crowd  of  other  ladies,  began  the  procession  in 
open  litters  most  richly  ornamented.  The  Duchess  of  Touraine  was 
not  in  a  litter,  but,  to  display  herself  the  more,  was  mounted  on  a 
palfrey  magnificently  caparisoned. 

"The  litter  of  the  queen  was  led  by  the  Dukes  of  Touraine  and 
Bourbon  at  the  head,  the  Dukes  of  Berry  and  Burgundy  were  at  the 
center,  and  the  Lord  Peter  de  Navarre  and  the  Count  d'Ostrevant 
behind  the  litter,  which  was  open  and  beautifully  ornamented.  The 
Duchess  of  Touraine  followed  on  her  palfrey,  led  by  the  Count  de  la 
Marche  and  the  Count  de  Nevcrs,  the  whole  advancing  slowly,  at  a 
foot's  pace.  After  her  came  the  Duchess  of  Burgimdy  and  her  daugh- 
ter, the  Lady  Margaret  of  Hainault,  in  an  open  litter,  led  by  the  Lord 
Henry  de  Bar  and  Sir  William,  the  young  Count  de  Namur.  Then 
came  the  Duchess  of  Beny  and  the  daughter  of  the  Lord  de  Coucy,  in 


214 


FRENCH  WOBLD   OW  WHEELS. 


an  open  and  ornamented  litter,  led  l)y  Sir  James  de  Bourbon  and  Sir 
Philip  d'Artois.  Then  the  Duchess  de  Bar  and  her  daughter,  led  by 
Sir  Charles  d'Albret  and  the  Lord  de  Coucy.  There  was  no  particular 
mention  made  of  the  other  ladies  and  damsels  who  followed  in  covered 
chariots,  or  on  palfreys,  led  by  their  knights.  Sergeants  and  others 
of  the  king's  officers  had  full  employment  in  making  way  for  the  pro- 
cession and  keeping  off  the  crowd,  for  there  were  such  numbers 
assembled  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  world  had  come  thither."  ' 

Such  was  the  eifect  of  prejudice  on  the  public  mind  at  this  time 
(1399)  that  very  few  ladies  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  relinquish 
riding  on  horseback  for  traveling  in  litters,  although  encouraged  by 
the  example  of  royalty.  It  required  nearly  three  centuries  to  remove 
it.  As  late  as  1650  there  were  still  to  be  seen  in  the  streets  of  Paris 
the  stone  benches  placed  there  for  the  convenience  of  its  citizens  in 
mounting  on  horseback. 

After  these  litters  borne  by  men  came  the  horse-litter.  In  the 
engraving  —  copied  from  a  manuscript  history  of  the  Kings  of  France, 
written  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum  —  we  find  the  picture  of  one.  It  represents  the 
removal  of  Queen  Clotilde  in  her  last  sickness  to  Tours,  where  she 
died.     This  litter  is  supposed  to  have  been  furnished  with  a  bed  and 


French   HoRSE-iiiTTER. 

cushions,  and  curtains  opening  at  the  sides  represented  as  yellow,  striped 
with  red.  This  kind  of  litter  is  said  to  have  been  used  only  in  cases 
of  sickness  or  Ijy  ladies  ;  the  Norman  knights,  who  prided  themselves 
on  their  horsemanship,  considering  them  disgracefully  effeminate. 


'  Froissart's  Chronicles,  Vol.  IV,  cli.  2. 


MABIE   OF  ANJOU'S   WABBLING  CHABIOT  215 

During  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  some  portions  of  the  sixteenth 
centuries,  the  men  preferred  —  that  mode  of  conveyance  being  the 
most  fashionable  —  to  travel  on  horseback,  even  when  they  had  to  ride 
double.  Men  of  the  first  rank  frequently  sat  behind  their  equerry, 
and  the  horse  was  often  led  by  servants.  When  Charles  VI  of  France 
wished  to  see,  incognito,  the  entrance  of  the  queen  into  Paris,  he 
placed  himself  on  horseback  behind  Savoisy,  who  was  his  confidant, 
with  whom,  however,  he  was  much  incommoded  in  the  crowd.  When 
Louis,  Duke  of  Orleans,  that  prince's  brother,  was  assassinated  in 
1407,  the  two  ecuyers  who  accompanied  him  rode  both  on  the  same 
horse.  Ladies  also  frequently  appeared  on  horseback  upon  public 
occasions,  for  although  carriages  of  some  kind  existed,  they  were  as 
yet  by  no  means  commonly  in  use. 

We  are  informed  by  Roubo  that  "  modern  carriages  are  extremely 
new  in  France,  as  all  our  princes  either  walk  or  ride  on  horseback,  and 
so  do  ladies  even,  except  when  traveling  long  journeys,  which  then 
were  either  made  in  litters  or  covered  chariots,"  ^  —  the  latter  a  kind 
that  was  not  used  in  the  town.  This  is  so  true  that  in  the  year  1457, 
in  the  reign  of  Charles  VII,  the  ambassadors  of  Ladislaus  V,  King 
of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  offered  to  Marie  of  Anjou,  the  Queen  of 
France,  with  other  gifts,  a  chariot  which  was  very  much  admired  by 
the  court  and  the  people  of  Paris,  beeause,  as  a  historian  of  that  period 
says,  it  was  "wabbling"  and  richly  molded,  and  that  the  chariots  then 
in  use  were  not  "hung  up,  but  set  directly  upon  the  axle-tree." 

The  progress  of  art  at  this  period  was  very  slow  in  Continental 
Europe.  The  representation  of  a  chariot  in  use  by  royalty  on  state 
occasions  is  annexed.  It  is  copied  from  a  very  scarce  French  work 
entitled  "Le  Eoman  du  Roy  Meliadus,"  preserved  in  the  manuscript 
department  of  the  British  Museum.  This  is  supposed  to  have  been 
written  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but  the  references 
in  the  text  to  the  chariot  shown  are  somewhat  obscure.  In  this  char- 
iot the  king  is  seated  with  his  helmet  placed  beside  him,  having  also  a 

*  We  are  informed  by  an  old  dictionary  that  the  word  ' '  chariot "  comes  from  the 
French,  which  primarily  meant  a  wagon,  and  was  also  applied  to  a  kind  of  litter  borne 
up  by  an  axle-tree  on  two  wheels,  used  by  citizens'  wives  who  were  not  able  or  not 
allowed  to  keep  ordinary  litters.  Hence  by  degrees  it  became  applied  to  the  vehicles 
to  which  it  is  now  peculiarly  appropriated.  (See  Cottgrave's  Dictionary,  1632.)  The 
term  "chariot"  was  likewise  applied  to  a  war-engine  in  some  portions  of  the  continent 
of  Europe.     (See  Antiquarian  liepertorij,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  360.) 


216 


FRENCH    WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


French   State   Chariot. 


cushion  for  resting  his  royal  head  upon  when  he  chose  to  use  it.     The 
wheel,  "which  is  more  ornamental  than  useful,"  reminds  us  of  those 

curiosities  called 
windows  in  ancient 
churches  of  the  time. 
The  Spanish  and 
French  custom  of 
placing  the  postilion 
on  the  horse,  as  hero 
seen,  is  said  to  have 
been  caused  by  the 
fiict  that  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  on  one 
occasion  had  a  state 
secret  divulged  l)y  his  coachman,  who  sat  near  him  when  traveling. 

In  1474  the  Emperor  Frederick  III  is  reported  to  have  visited 
Frankfort  in  a  close  carriage  which  seems  to  have  effectually  sheltered 
him  from  the  rain ;  ])ut  whether  the  top  was  a  temporary  fixture,  or, 
like  the  last,  stationary,  is  uncertain.  Roubo,  to  whose  labors  we  are 
indebted  for  much  of  our  knowledge,  says,  "It  was  as  late  as  luider 
the  reign  of  Francis  I  [1515-1547]  that  a  kind  of  carriage  called 
^carrosses'  were  used  in  France,  but  the  exact  form  of  them  is  un- 
known. These  carriages  would  scat  two  or  four  persons,  but  were 
very  scarce,  there  l)eing  only  two  in  France,  —  one  the  property  of  the 
queen,  the  other  of  Diana,  natural  daughter  of  Henry  11.^  It  was  not 
until  during  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Great  [1572-1610]  that  the  use 
of  carriages  became  more  common."-  Later,  in  1509,  the  Electrcss 
of  Brandenburg,  the  Duchess  of  Mecklenl)urg,  and  some  others  dis- 
played elegant  carriages.  The  Elector  of  Cologne  (1562)  had  several, 
and  the  Margrave  John  Sigismund  at  Warsaw  (in  1594)  had  no  less 
than  thirty-six  carriages,  with  six  horses  to  each,  concerning  which  it 


*  "  Some  historians  tell  us  that  there  were  three  carriages  in  Paris,  —  one  belonging 
to  the  queen,  the  second  to  Diana  de  Poitiers,  the  third  to  Rune  de  Laval,  Lord  of 
Bois  Dauphin,  who  was  such  a  corpulent  and  unwieldy  gentleman  as  to  be  unable  to 
ride  on  horseback.  Others  say  that  the  three  first  carriages  belonged  to  Catharine  de 
Medici;  Diana,  Duchess  of  Angouleme,  who  died  in  1G19;  and  Christopher  de  Thou, 
first  president  of  the  Parliament."  —  Rees's  Ency.,  Art.  "  Coach." 

*  UArt  du  Menuisier,  by  Roubo,  p.  457,  Paris,  1771. 


ASSASSINATION   OF  IIENBY  IV. 


217 


is  recorded  that  "the  common  use  of  carriages  is  not  older  than  the 
time  of  John  Sigismund."  ' 

111  1527,  when  Wolsey  visited  France,  the  dame  regent,  tlie  king's 
mother,  entered  Amiens  "  riding  in  a  very  riche  chariot,"  and  with  her 
therein  was  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  her  daugliter,  furnished  with  one 
hundred  or  more  kdies,  some  in  rich  horse-litters  and  some  in  char- 
iots.^  The  king,  though  attended  with  the  utmost  magnificence, 
according  to  the  military  spirit  of  the  age,  rode  into  the  city  on  "a 
goodly  genet." 

According  to  Duiman,  in  a  tract  entitled  "  Sur  la  question  que 
doit-on  a  I'Espagne"  (p.  38),  the  Spaniards  first  invented  coaches; 
and  Twiss,  in  his  account  of  Spain  (p.  324),  says  the  first  coach  was 
made  use  of  in  that  country  in  1546.^  Macpherson,  in  the  "Annals  of 
Commerce,"  states  that  as  early  as  1650  there  were  five  hundred 
coaches  in  Antwerp,  used  by  persons  of  distinction.'*  The  custom  of 
riding  in  carriages  seems  to  have  become  general,  in  spite  of  Duke 
Julius's  proclamation.^ 

Henry  IV  of  France  is  said  to  have  had  but  one  coach  for  him- 
self and  wife,  an  engraving  of  which  is  annexed.  In  this  he  was 
assassinated,  in  the  Rue  de 
la  Ferronnerie,  Paris,  May 
14,  1610,  by  Francis  Ra- 
vaillac.  As  springs  had 
not  yet  been  invented,  this 
was  rather  an  uncomfortable 
carriage.  As  was  the  cus- 
tom t)f  the  times,  the  door- 
way had  an  ornamental  piece 
of  leather  drawn  across  it, 
as    shown   in   the   illustration.      When 


Coach  of  Henry  IV  of  France. 


L'equi 


:"ed,    curtains  were   sus- 


'  Suite  des  Memoires pour  servir  a  I' Hist,  de  Brandenburg,  p.  63. 

^  Wordsworth's  Eccles.  Biog.,  I,  389. 

^  Father  Smecli  states  that  the  Italians  obtained  coaches  from  China.  (See  Sir 
George  Staunton's  Embassy  to  China,  Vol.  II,  75.)  In  a  French  Encyclopfedia,  Tome 
IV,  Art.  "Carrosse,"  we  find,  "Les  carrosses  sont  de  I'invention  des  Frangois,  et  par 
consequent  toutes  les  voitures  qu'ou  a  imaginees  depuis  a  I'lmitatiou  des  carrosses," 
thus  crediting  the  French  with  the  invention. 

■•  Annals  of  Commerce,  II,  133. 

^  Lunig.,  Corp.  Jur.  Feud.  Germ.,  II,  p.  1447. 


218  FBENGH   WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 

pended  from  the   roof  of  the   carriage   as  a  protection  to  the  pas- 
sengers. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  covered  carriages  appear  to  have 
been  used  by  ladies  of  high  rank,  while  as  jet  the  men  considered  it 
unbecoming  in  them  to  indulge  in  such  luxuries,  unless  as  the  ambas- 
sador of  a  foreign  nation.  Such  for  the  first  time  were  seen  in  a  coach 
at  the  imperial  commission  at  Erfurth  in  1613.  The  wedding-carriage 
of  the  first  wife  of  the  Emperor  Leopold,  a  Spanish  princess,  cost  with 
the  harness  thirty-eight  thousand  florins.  The  coaches  used  by  that 
emperor  are  thus  described  by  Kink :  "  In  the  imperial  coaches  no 
great  magnificence  was  to  be  seen ;  they  were  covered  over  with  red 
cloth  and  black  nails.  The  harness  was  also  black,  and  in  the  whole 
work  there  was  no  gold.  The  panels  were  of  glass,  and  on  this 
account  they  were  called  the  imperial  glass-coaches.  On  festival  [oc- 
casions] the  harness  was  ornamented  with  red  silk  fringes .  The  impe- 
rial coaches  were  distinguished  only  by  their  having  leather  traces,  but 
the  ladies  in  the  imperial  suit  were  obliged  to  be  contented  Avith  car- 
riages the  traces  of  which  were  made  of  ropes."  ^  Still  later  (in  1681) 
there  was  a  magnificent  display  of  carriages  in  Hanover  belonging  to 
the  Duke  Ernest  Augustus,  who  had  fifty  gilt  coaches,  with  six  horses 
to  each. 

Some  idea  of  the  rude  carts  used  in  Picardy  at  the  beginning  of  the 

seventeenth  century  may  be  formed 
from  the  annexed  engraving,  copied 
from  "  Coryat's  Crudities,"  ^  pul)- 
lished  in  1611.  Making  ample  al- 
lowance for  the  self-styled  "Odcom- 
l:)ian  leg-stretcher's  "  sketches,  it  is 
still  evident  that  art  as  yet  had  done 
but  little  for  the  people.  The  body 
is  ungainly  even  for  a  cart,  and  the 
Picardy  Cart.  head-covering  is  of  the  rudest  kind. 


'  Luniug's  Theatr.,  Cer.  I,  p.  289. 

^  "  CorijaVs  Crudities,  hastily  goblecl  up  in  five  moneths  travells  in  France,  Savoy, 
Italy,  Rhetia,  Commonally  called  the  Grisons  Country,  Helvetia,  alias  Switzerland, 
some  parts  of  High  Germany,  and  the  Netherlands  :  newly  digested  in  the  hungry  aire 
of  Odcome,  in  the  County  of  Somerset,  and  now  dispersed  to  the  nourishment  of  the 
travelling  members  of  this  Kiugdome,  &c.     London:  Printed  by  W.  S.,  Ano  Domini, 


ANCIENT  FRENCH  COACHES. 


219 


The  figures  of  four  nncient  carriage-bodies  have  been  preserved  in 
"L'Art  du  Menuisier,"  two  of  which,  Siamese-twin  fashion,  we  here 
introduce  to  our  readers  on  a  reduced  scale.  These  vehicles  appear  to 
have  had  stationary 
heads,  which  were 
furnished  with  cur- 
tains removable  at 
pleasure.  Eoubo 
tells  us  "  these  car- 
riages were  called 
coc/ies,  these  being 
the  only  kind  of 
vehicles  of  which 
we  know  the  exact 
form."  The  author 
above  mentioned 
says  some  of  these 
coaches  were  extant 
in  his  time.  Much 
splendor  was  aimed 
at  in  the  construc- 
tion, by  the  use  of  rich  carvings,  monograms,  and  coats-of-arms,  — 
"  airy  nothings  "  frequently  employed  in  dignifying  many  of  the  mean- 
est specimens  of  humanity  that  ever  breathed. 

Historians  tell  us  that  hackney-coaches  were  introduced  into  Paris 
in  1650  by  Nicholas  Savage,  which  is  probably  true ;  l)ut  when  they 
ask  us  to  consider  him  the  inventor,  we  question  their  position,  i 
From  the  first  they  were  called  fiacres,  some  writers  say  because  the 
image  of  a  saint  of  that  name  was  painted  on  the  panels,  others  because 
tlie  inventor  resided  at  the  Hotel  St.  Fiacre,  located  in  Eue  St.  Mar- 
tin, opposite  Eue  St.  Montmorency.  Probably  they  were  so  called  in 
compliment  to  the  saint  of  that  name,  who  is  said  to  have  been  born 

IGll."     Coryat  died  at  Surat,  on  a  second  journey,  aged  forty,  in  December,  1617.    Sic 
exit  Coryatus. 

'  The  claim  for  Savage  is  made  exceedingly  doubtful  by  a  letter  in  Stafford's  Collec- 
tion, under  date  of  April  1,  1G34,  wherein  it  is  recorded  that  hackney-coaches  were 
then  to  be  hired  in  London,  at  the  May-pole  in  the  Strand,  with  which  everybody  was 
much  pleased :  "  For  whereas  before  coaches  could  not  be  had  but  at  great  rates,  now 
a  man  may  have  one  much  cheaper." 


Ancient   Twin    Carriage-bodies. 


220  FRENCH   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

in  Ireland  —  a  kind  prolific  of  them  —  about  the  year  600.  He  went 
to  France  at  the  invitation  of  the  Bishop  of  Meaux,  where  he  founded 
a  hospital  for  travelers  and  the  poor.  This  establishment  was  some- 
times called  the  Holy  Fiacre.  In  the  pursuit  of  duties  connected 
therewith,  he  is  reported  to  have  established  the  first  hacks,  to  be  used 
in  transporting  the  needy  and  infirm  to  his  hospital.  These  in  time 
were  known  as  ^acres  (sacred  carriages),  because  they  were  used  in 
charitable  ofifices.  Similar  vehicles  afterwards  being  used  for  carrying 
the  public,  the  appellation  was  extended  to  all  such  conveyances.  The 
30th  of  August  is  St.  Fiacre's  day  among  the  Parisian  hackmen,  many 
of  whom  are  ex-priests,  who  are  admitted  to  be  more  intelligent  and 
honest  than  the  same  class  in  other  cities.  On  the  day  of  celebration, 
the  fraternity  have  "  a  good  time  "  in  singing,  feasting,  and  dancing, 
the  denizens  generally  enjoying  the  privilege  of  going  afoot  for  the 
benefit  of  his  saintship. 

The  following  engraving  represents  the  fiacre  of  former  days,  de- 
signed for  carrying  six  inside  passengers,  two  sitting  in  the  doorways 

facing  outward.  Like 
other  vehicles  of  the  time, 
it  is  guiltless  of  springs 
and  suggestive  of  pen- 
ance. The  so-called  half- 
doors  were  merely  cur- 
tains closing  the  entrance. 
The   wretched   condition 

PARISIAN  Fiacre.  ^^^  ^j^^   ^^^^^  ,^^^^  ^|^^  •^^^_ 

perfect  illumination  of  the  streets  in  Paris  made  it  necessary  to  place  a 
lamp  in  front  al)ove  the  driver's  head,  and  have  at  least  three  horses  to 
move  the  vehicle. 

It  is  conceded  that  the  French  were  the  first  to  run  omnibuses  for 
the  conveyance  of  i:)assengers,  somewhere  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  In  the  original  petition  it  is  stated  that  "the 
undertakers  were  influenced  by  a  desire  of  contributing  to  the  conven- 
ience of  a  large  class  of  persons  who  had  not  the  means  of  conveyance 
in  a  hired  chaise  or  coach,  for  which  they  would  be  charged  a  pistole 
(11  livr.),  or  at  least  two  ecus  (5  livr.  14  sous)  per  day."  This  peti- 
tion was  presented  to  the  Privy  Council  on  the  25th  of  November, 
1661,  and  granted  Jan.  19,  1662.     An  unlimited  number  of  vehicles 


CABBIAGES   IN   THE   CLUNY  MUSEUM. 


221 


were  to  bo  stationed  Jit  convenient  spots,  and  to  be  started  at  certain 
fixed  hours,  whether  empty  or  not,  at  the  price  of  five  sous  each  indi- 
vidual the  entire  route,  and  for  lesser  distances,  or  the  faubourgs,  in 
proportion.  No  soldiers,  pages,  lackeys,  servants  in  livery,  workmen, 
or  laborers  were  permitted  to  ride  in  them.  In  the  route  thus  estab- 
lished seven  vehicles  started,  for  the  first  time  traversing  the  streets 
leading  from  Porte  St.  Antoine  to  the  Luxembourg.  Sauval  says  the 
vehicles  for  the  first  few  days  were  followed  by  noisy  hootings  from 
the  populace.  After  a  few  years  these  vehicles  ceased  running.  Soon 
after  the  introduction  of  these  omnibuses  (in  1664)  post-coaches  are 
said  to  have  been  invented  in  France,  but,  as  will  be  seen  in  our 
English  history,  ithey  were  used  in  that  island  long  before. 

The  figure  below  represents  a  round-bodied  coach  of  singular  con- 
struction, which  made  its  appearance  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main  in  1667. 
The  standing  pillars  are  said 
to  have  been  fitted  with  slid- 
ing window-frames,  glazed 
with  Venetian  2:round  o'lass. 
This  carriage,  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  ao-e,  was  streno-th- 


ened  by  two  stout  perches 
running  beneath  the  body, 
which  was  suspended  on 
leather  straps  stretched  be- 
tween two  pairs  of  solid  wooden  standards,  these  last  being  well  sup- 
ported by  heavy  iron  braces.  The  furchells  >  likewise  appear  unneces- 
sarily heavy.  Covering  the  doorway  still  appears  the  familiar  "apron" 
bordered  with  fringes.  We  shall  again  meet  with  examples  of  similar 
construction  in  our  English  history  of  earlier  date. 

In  the  Musee  cle  Cluny,  Paris,  we  saw  a  coach  of  this  period  hung 
upon  thorough-braces  supported  by  four  standards  similar  to  the  last. 
Two  ponderous  wooden  reaches,  one  on  each  side,  strengthen  the  run- 
ning gear.  In  front  these  are  mortised  into  a  bolster,  and  behind  into 
the  axle-bed,  having  iron  steps  for  getting  into  the  carriage  secured  to 
each  about  the  center.     The  rickety  footmaa's  stand  in  the  rear  hangs 


Ancient    Coach, 


'  This  word  comes  from  the  Latin  furciila,  a  little  fork,  which  instrument  it  some- 
what resembles. 


222  FBENCH  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 

in  a  sling  of  leather  straps.  The  wooden  axles  have  large  linchpins 
through  the  ends  securing  the  wheels,  which  are  necessarily  out  of 
proportion,  the  front  being  only  two  and  a  half,  while  the  hind  wheels 
are  seven  feet  high.  There  is  also  a  hammer-cloth  seat  for  the  driver, 
set  off  with  gimp  lace.  The  inside  body  linings  are  figured  silk,  like- 
wise finished  with  gimp,  the  holders  being  of  the  same  kind  of 
material. 

This  Cluny  collection  embraces  two  more  coaches  of  a  later  date, 
noticed  elsewhere,  besides  four  ancient  two- wheeled  vehicles,  two 
sleighs,  two  sedans,  one  child's  wagon,  and  several  smaller  models  of 
old  carriages  in  enclosed  glass  cases,  besides  twenty-four  sets  of  double 
harness,  eight  sets  quite  plainly  made,  and  sixteen  with  gilt  mountings. 

The  first  claiming  our  attention  is  a  kind  of  buggy  having  wheels 
six  feet  in  diameter,  secured  to  the  axle-tree  by  nuts,  with  a  linchpin 
through  the  same.  The  body,  singularly  modeled,  is  elaborately 
painted.  The  shafts  are  crooked,  similar  to  those  seen  among  us  a 
few  years  since.  A  step  behind,  hung  in  leather  straps,  supplies  a 
stand  for  the  footman,  whose  convenience  is  further  increased  by  the 
addition  of  holder-straps  secured  to  the  back  of  the  body.  Altogether 
this  vehicle  is  quite  unique,  and  worthy  the  inspection  of  every  lover 
of  the  antique. 

Another  curious  vehicle  after  the  gig  pattern  is  profusely  ornamented 
with  carvings  on  the  rockers,  front-pillars,  and  arm-rails,  very  low  at 
the  toe-board,  without  a  dasher.  There  is  a  supplementary  rocker 
placed  between  the  thorough-brace  on  which  it  lays  and  the  body 
proper.  The  linings  are  silk,  on  which  are  elaborate  figures  in 
needle-work. 

The  third  is  a  Veronese  carriole  of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  Gio. 
Batta  Maretto,  having  wheels,  five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  placed  far 
back  of  the  body,  volante  fashion.  The  body,  which  appears  to  have 
been  made  from  a  solid  piece  of  timber,  has  raised  figures  carved  on 
the  outside,  and  several  painted  ones  on  the  inside.  The  seat,  an  ele- 
vated one,  we  can  compare  with  nothing  unless  it  be  the  pulpits  of 
Cromwell's  time.  Even  the  cross-bars  are  plentifully  supplied  with 
carvings,  and  the  toe-l)oard  terminates  with  a  fine  figure  of  Justice  in 
front,  to  which  are  added  horse-heads  at  the  corners.  On  the  inside 
there  is  a  beautiful  picture  of  Aurora  in  paint.  The  cushion  is  made 
of  very  plain  leather.     Another  vehicle  very  similar  to  the  foregoing 


PHAETON   OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 


223 


in  model,  but  much  plainer,  with  a  twelve-spoked  wheel  and  tug-irons 
near  the  ends  of  the  shafts,  lined  with  tapestry,  completes  the  collec- 
tion of  two-wheeled  carriages. 

Besides  these  there  are  two  very  old  sleighs,  —  one  shaped  like  the 
dragon  of  fabulous  history,  with  monstrous  paps,  carved  from  the 
solid  log  and  richly  gilded,  built  for  Louis  XIV.  This  singular  cui-i- 
osity  is  fixed  upon  two  enormous  runners,  united  at  the  front  ends, 
and  surmounted  with  a  glass  ornament  placed  at  the  top.  In  the  sides 
there  are  two  doors  hinged  to  the  front-quarters.  Behind  is  a  seat  for 
a  driver,  with  pockets  for  his  feet  underneath,  after  the  Russian  man- 
ner. The  other  sleigh  is  of  more  simple  construction  and  seemingly 
of  later  date,  said  to  liavc  Ijeen  once  owned  by  the  queen  of 
Louis  XIII. 

The  phaeton,  an  il- 
lustration of  which  is 
annexed,    is    supposed 
to    be    of    French    or 
Flemish     manufacture, 
probably  belonging  to 
the    early 
part  of  the 
eighteenth 
century.  At 
the  time  of 
our  visit  to 
London     in 
1873,      it 
stood  on  ex- 
hibition    in  ^ 
the  Museum 
at     South 

Kensington,  antique  phaeton. i 

among  a  collection  of  antique  carriages,  to  which  it  had  been  sent  by  51 


'  Phaeton  comes  from  rpruveiv,  the  Grecian  name  of  a  fast  son  of  Phoebns,  by  Cly- 
meue.  Contrary  to  the  advice  of  Plioebus  (tlie  sun),  Phaeton  mounted  his  father's 
cliariot  and  drove  otf,  going  so  near  the  sun  tliat  the  heat  made  liim  drop  tlie  reins, 
when,  fearing  lest  his  rasli  acts  should  set  the  world  ou  fire,  Jupiter  strucii  him  dead 
with  a  thunderbolt. 


224 


FEENGH    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


private  contributor.  The  body  is  chair-shaped,  that  useful  piece  of 
household  furniture  having  been  frequently  copied  by  the  carriage- 
builders  of  former  days.  Its  architecture  is  very  much  of  the  char- 
acter shown  in  the  vehicles  of  the  Cluny  collection,  the  side  panels 
being  ornamented  l)y  the  painter  with  artistic  skill.  This  is  mounted 
upon  thorough-braces  supported  at  the  ends  by  scroll-irons,  proving 
indul)italjly  that  this  carriage  Avas  built  previous  to  the  introduction 
of  springs,  which  was  some  seventy-five  years  later.  Like  most  of  the 
ancient  carriages  preserv^ed  in  the  museums  of  Europe,  this  phaeton 
has  solid  proportions  at  variance  with  those  of  modern  times. 

In  the  "L'Art  du  Menuisier"  we  find  a  picture  of  the  body  of  a 
corbillard,   which  Roubo,  the  author,  says  "  is  the  oldest  of  French 

carriages  the  forms 
of  which  are  exact- 
ly known.  The 
carriages  are  open 
above  the  arm-rail 
on  two  sides  only, 
which  may  be  closed 
by  leather  curtains 
or  other  stuff,  the 
old  name  for  which 
was  mantelets. 
These  were  at- 
tached to  the  pillars 
and  the  rails  by 
several  leather 
straps,  as  seen  in 
the  drawing.  When 
fresh  air  is  required 
these  curtains  are  rolled  up  close  under  the  rain-molding  of  the  top, 
which  protrudes  sufficiently  to  protect  them.  The  two  ends  of  the 
carriage  are  closed  l)y  leather  curtains  or  other  stuff. 

"  The  outside  of  the  body  proper  is  covered  up  to  the  arm-rail  with 
panels,  and  these  are  again  covered  over  with  leather  or  other  mate- 
rial. These  carriages  have  no  doors,  only  two  openings  at  the  sides, 
which  are  closed  l)y  a  piece  of  leather  fastened  to  a  wooden  bar,  c,f, 
held  to  the  body  by  two  iron  hooks.     This  wooden  bar  also  serves  to 


French  Cokbijllard. 


DESCBIPTION   OF  A    COBBILLABD.  225 

protect  the  persons  sitting  at  the  door  against  falling  out,  and  is  there- 
fore rounded,  and  in  some  instances  ornamented,  on  the  top.  The 
lower  edge  of  this  piece  of  leather  is  fastened  to  the  step,  extending 
below  the  edge  of  the  body  proper  about  twelve  inches,  constituting  a 
kind  of  addition  to  the  same  sufficient  to  give  leg-room  to  those  sitting 
at  the  door.  The  step  is  likewise  inclining  about  six  inches,  to  facili- 
tate ingress  and  at  the  same  time  extend  the  leg-room.  The  coffre,  or 
extension  of  the  body  which  forms  the  doors,  is  composed  of  an  iron 
rod  attached  to  the  body,  and  is  likewise  covered  with  leather  or  other 
stuff. 

"The  seats  are  arranged  the  same  as  in  our  ordinary  carriages,  for 
two  persons  on  the  front  and  two  more  on  the  hind  seat.  The  seats 
near  the  door  are  movable,  and  may  be  lifted  up  so  as  to  make  room 
for  entrance  to  the  carriage,  and  are  held  horizontal  by  bolts  fastened 
to  the  pillars.  These  seats  are  each  long  enough  for  two  persons,  and 
an  ordinary  coach  (corbillard)  will  consequently  hold  eight.  City  or 
private  coaches  carry  only  six  persons,  two  at  the  doors  and  four 
inside. 

"  The  principal  dimensions  of  the  carriage-body  are  as  follows : 
length,  six  feet  six  inches  ;  width,  measured  at  the  arm-rail,  three  feet 
nine  inches  ;  and  from  the  bottom  of  the  body  to  the  upper  side  of  the 
top  [roof],  five  feet  four  inches.  Height  up  to  the  arm-rail,  two  feet 
two  inches ;  width  of  doors  (or  rather  the  opening  for  entrance  when 
calculated  for  seating  two  persons) ,  two  feet  nine  inches ;  when  for 
one  person  only,  two  feet  three  inches ;  and  the  door-holders  (the 
iron  bars) ,  about  six  inches  lower  than  the  arm-rails. 

"  In  general  I  represent  here  only  a  very  simple  coach,  but  it  may 
be  surmised  from  the  illustration  that  in  their  day  these  coaches  were 
susceptible  of  many  decorations,  such  as  costly  stuffs,  gold  and  em- 
broidery, ornamental  to  both  the  in  and  outside  of  the  curtains,  door- 
pieces,  etc. ;  but  there  being  nothing  positive  on  this  subject,  I  give 
it  as  conjecture,  only  1  think  it  the  more  probable,  as  our  ancestors, 
perhaps  with  less  taste  than  we  have,  were  lovers  of  magnificence."  ^ 

The  old  French  author  whom  we  have  quoted  says  that  "  the  num- 
ber of  modern  carriages  is  quite  considerable,  according  to  their  differ- 
ent forms,  sizes,  and  uses.     This  is  easily  accounted  for,  as  they  are 

'  See  Roubo's  UArt  du  Menuisier,  pp.  4G2,  463. 


226 


FBENCH  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


works  of  taste  and,  if  I  may  say  so,  of  caprice,  as  patterns  and  dimensions 
may  be  changed  indefinitely  without  altering  the  construction,  which 
in  all  cases  is  about  the  same.  For  this  reason  I  think  we  may  classify 
our  carriages  in  three  distinct  and  different  kinds.  First,  ancient 
carrosses,  of  which  the  exact  form  is  unknown.  These  were  subse- 
quently changed  into  coaches  covered  with  a  stationary  roof,  the  sides 
of  which  were  only  closed  to  the  height  of  the  arm-rail,  the  upper  por- 
tion of  which  was  provided  with  curtains  of  different  material,  some- 
times leather,  as  may  yet  be  seen  on  some  public  conveyances  which  have 
preserved  the  form  and  name  of  these  ancient  coaches,  and  in  corbillards, 
a  kind  of  vehicle  intended  for  the  exclusive  use  of  great  dignitaries. 
After  these  coaches  another  carriage  was  thought  of,  the  sides  of  which 
were  closed  all  the  way  up,  with  doors  to  open,  and  solid ;  these  had 
the  modern  name  of  carrosses.^  These  carriages  were  very  large  and 
splendidly  finished,  but  on  account  of  their  enormous  weight  they  arc 
now  only  used  in  kingly  ceremonials  or  by  dukes,  or  for  the  reception 
of  ambassadors.  The  gearing  of  these  carriages  has  no  fork-shaped 
perch,  but  is  in  one  single  piece  running  under  the  middle  of  the 
body," 

The  coach  of  1771   will  be  seen  below.     Coaches  were  then  the 
chief  vehicles  employed  in  transporting  the  people  from  one  province 


The   Coach    (Fk.   Caroch),   1771. 


'  A  writer  in  the  Antiquarian  Bepertory  informs  us  tliat  somewliere  Ijetween  1643 
and  1650  the  word  carrosse,  previously  used  in  the  feminine,  was  changed  to  the  mas- 
culine gender.  This  was  caused  by  a  mistake  of  Louis  XIV,  who  on  one  occasion 
went  out,  and  not  finding  his  carriage  in  readiness,  with  great  vehemence  called  aloud, 
"  Ou  est  mon  carrosse?  "  If  the  king  had  happened  at  any  time  to  have  said  unguard- 
edly, "iHa  pere  et  mon  mere,"  fathers  and  mothers,  I  make  no  doubt,  would  have 
changed  sexes,  such  was  the  implicit  adoration  paid  to  the  Grand  Monarque.  (Anti- 
quarian Bepertory,  Vol.  IV,  p.  642.) 


PHILIP  DE   GHIESE'S  BEBLINE. 


22T 


to  another ;  and  since  they  were  expected  to  encounter  nigged  and 
luievcn  roads,  they  were  built  extremely  solid  and  heavy,  being  nearly 
six  feet  wide  on  the  seat,  and  eight  feet  high,  with  a  simple  flare  of 
about  one  inch  to  the  sides.  The  lower  portions  of  the  corner-posts 
were  finished  in  half-fantail  form,  as  shown  in  the  engraving,  the  body 
being  steadied  by  straps  attached  to  the  reach  and  roof. 

"  The  second  kind  of  modern  carriages  are  called  berlines,  from 
Berlin,  the  capital  of  Prussia,  where  it  was  invented  [some- 
where about  1660].^     The  difference  between  these  berlines 

and  the  car- 
rosses  is  that 
they  have  two 
perches  in  the 
gearing  above 
which  the 
body  hangs 
in  such  a  way 
that  the  doors 
extend  the  en- 
tire height  of 
The  berline.  the  body  and 

opening  above  the  perches.  Originally  these  berlines  were  different 
from  the  carrosses  in  another  point,  as  they  were,  and  still  are,  hung 
off"  on  two  horizontal  leather  braces  attached  to  the  two  extremities  of 
the  gearing,  instead  of  being  suspended  from  the  corners  of  the  body ; 
but  since  springs  have  been  invented  and  in  common  use,  the  latter 
mode  is  deemed  preferable,  owing  to  the  superior  elasticity,  making 
riding  easier  than  long  belts,  which  when  wet  lose  their  softness  ;  but 
still  many  berlines  are  now  hung  on  springs. 

"  Berlines  being  the  kind  of  carriages  mostly  in  use,  it  was  under- 
taken to  make  them  as  complete  as  possible  in  the  general  formation 
and  size,  and  this  again  gave  them  different  names,  such  as  berlines 
proper,  berlines  with  two  seats  (carrying  four  persons  inside) ,  and 
vis-d-vis,  when  they  had  room  for  only  two  persons,  one  on  the  front 
and  one  on  the  hind  seat,  facing  each  other.     To  construct  these  ber- 


'  The  iiiventoi'  was  Philip  dc  Cliiese,  colouel  and  quartennastor  in  the  service  of 
Frederick  William,  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  who  died  in  1673. 


228 


FRENCH   WOELB  ON  WHEELS. 


lines  much  lighter,  the  front  door-pillar  was  cut  at  the  height  of  the 
arm-ruil,  in  such  a  way  that  the  front  pillar  became  a  corner  pillar. 


Chariot. 

This  class  of  berlines  was  called  carrosse,  coupe,  or  berlingot,  or  more 
commonly  diligence,  seating  only  two  persons  on  the  back  seat,  but  in 
some  instances  three  by  the  employment  of  a  movable  seat.  Dili- 
gences containing  only  one  person  in  a  seat  were  in  consequence  called 
desohligeants."  Laurence  Sterne,  in  his  "Sentimental  Jour- 
ney," notices  these  desobligeants,  and  tells  us  that  when  he 

was  in  Cal- 
ais, and  a 
lady  wished 
to  travel  in 
the  same 
vehicle  as 
himself,  he 
could  not 
oblige  her, 
as  it  would 
seat  but  one 


passenger  ; 

and   so  the' 

lady  had  to  wait  for  another  disohliger  in  order  to  pursue  her  journey. 
The  later  diligence  (see  vignette  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter), 
as  the  mail-coaches  in  France  are  called,  is  a  very  clumsily  con- 
structed vehicle,  the  body  consisting  of  three  in  one,  the  diligence 
being  drawn  by  five  or  six  horses,  a  postilion  sitting  on  the   saddle 


Diligence. 


DILIGENCE   AND    POST-CHAISE. 


229 


of  one  of  them,  the  same  belonging  to  the  poste  roydle.  The  first 
l)()dy  is  called  a  coupe,  and  is  shaped  like  a  chariot,  holding  three 
passengers ;  the  second,  like  a  coach,  holds  six  persons  inside ;  the 
third,  similar  to  a  coach  turned  sideways,  carries  six  or  eight,  and  is 
termed  the  rotonde.  In  addition,  on  the  roof,  before  the  place  appro- 
priated to  luggage,  is  the  banquette,  a  bench  covered  with  a  hood, 
holding  four  outsiders.  When  all  is  filled,  the  conducteur,  or  guard, 
takes  his  seat  among  the  luggage  to  protect  it  from  robbers.  The 
coaches  move  four  or  five  miles  an  hour,  fares  being  charged  in  the 
order  of  places  above  named. 

"The  third  kind  of  modern  carriages,"  continues  Eoubo,  "are  the 
chaises  of  all  kinds,  which  as  a  general  thing  have  only  two  wheels. 
Chaises  accommodate  either  one  or  two  persons,  and  are  different  from 
carrosses,  coupes,  or  diligences,  as  the  body  sinks  below  the  supports 
of  the  gearing,  having  no 
doors  in  the  sides,  which  if 
they  did  could  not  be  opened, 


Chaise. 

because  the  shafts  would  be  in  the  way  ;  but  there  is  a  door  in  front, 
the  mountings  of  which  are  put  on  horizontal,  so  that  in  opening  the 
door  drops  down.  These  chaises  are  a  new  invention,  the  older  kind, 
called  post-chaises,  which  we  see  in  use  to-day,  having  been  con- 
structed ever  since  1664.  The  post-chaises  in  use  before  that  time 
were  merely  a  kind  of  easy-chair  suspended  between  two  poles  and 
carried  on  two  wheels.  Post-chaises  were  not  only,  as  their  name 
indicates,  used  for  postal  service,  but  also,  with  a  few  alterations,  by 
wealthy  people  in  town.  These  had  a  door  in  the  front  and  seated 
only  one  person,  and  were  similar  to  the  old  litters.^ 

'  The  author  of  L'Art  du  Menuisier  says  that  '■'■lectica,  or  litter,  comes  from  lit,  a 
bed,  because  persons  riding  in  them  rather  reclined  than  sat;  still,  this  oriiijiu  of  the 


230 


FRENCH   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


"Finally,  there  is  another  kind  of  chaise,  sometimes  called  rouettes 
or  vinaigrettes,  but  more  commonly  brouettes.     Their  form  is  nearly 

that  of  the  chaises-a-porteurs ,  except 
that  they  have  two  wheels,  and  are 
supported  by  springs,  the  mechanism 
of  which  is  very  ingenious.  These 
chaises  are  drawn  by  men.^  These  in 
general  are  the  three  distinct  kinds 
of  modern  carriages,  not  counting  a 
variety  of  others  which  are  only  vari- 
ations of  these  chief  kinds,  such  as 
.berlines  with  four  doors,  gondolas, 
dormeiises,  caleches  with  several  rows 
of  seats  and  a  top  supported  by  iron 
pillars,  with  the  sides  either  open 
above  the  arm-rails,  or  closed  with 
curtains.  The  diahles  [devils],  a 
kind  of  diligence  in  which  the  upper  portion  of  the  door  is  cut  off; 
the  phaetons,  a  kind  of  open  caleche  or  char;  the  chaises,  with  falling 
tops   (e/i  soufflets),  which  originated  in  Italy;  the  cabriolets,  a  kind 


Brouette. 


word  is  only  conjecture.  ...  If  the  authors  who  wrote  ou  this  subject  had  said  a 
few  words  more,  we  should  not  remain  under  the  uncertainty  in  which  we  now  are. 
This  Is  proof  tliat  in  matters  of  art,  as  in  all  other  things  treating  on  the  costumes  and 
progression  of  nations,  nothing  is  superfluous  considering  the  great  diflereuce  between 
ancient  and  modern  usages.  Consequently  the  necessity  is  proved  that  every  author 
ought  to  be  as  circumstantial  as  possible  when  writing  for  posterity,  the  customs  of 
which  must  differ  from  ours,  so  that  they  may  not  be  in  like  situation  with  us,  denied 
correct  and  full  records.  We  need  not  go  back  a  century,  nor  beyond  the  li-mits  of  our 
own  country,  to  show  how  necessary  it  is  for  the  glory  of  our  age  and  the  future  to 
treat  the  history  of  art  with  amplitude  and  correctness,  not  fearing  to  say  too  much, 
even  at  the  risk  of  being  looked  upon  as  too  prolix,  public  utility  being  preferable  to 
the  reputation  of  an  elegant  writer."  —  Note  to  L'Art  du  Menuisier,  p.  490. 

'  Adams,  in  his  Historij  of  English  Pleasure-carriages,  says  that  "the  first  attempt 
at  a  common  usage  of  covered  wheel-carriages  amongst  the  Parisian  citizens  occurred 
at  this  time  (1620),  in  the  introduction  of  a  vehicle  called  brouette  or  rouette."  He  has 
not  informed  us  where  he  obtained  this  extraordinary  piece  of  information,  but  it  is 
safe  to  infer  that  he  is  mistaken,  after  reading  what  Roubo  says  of  them  in  his  volume, 
and  our  account  in  this  chapter.  Brouettes  were  in  use  for  over  forty  years.  Eiffe,  of 
Paris,  obtained  a  patent  for  a  simple  sharp-pointed  iron  leg  attached  to  the  hind  end  of 
the  bottom  sill,  which,  resting  on  the  ground,  prevented  its  tipping  over  backward 
when  at  rest.  The  patent  is  dated  Jan.  24,  1806.  (See  Brevets  d' Inventions,  Vol. 
VIII,  PI.  XXVIII.) 


WOMEN  HIDDEN  BEHIND   DEEP  PANELS.  231 

of  chaise  or  small  char,  sometimes  open,  sometimes  closed  ;  the  wagon 
for  gardens,  two  and  four  seated ;  and  the  sleighs,  serving  to  ride  on 
over  ice  or  frozen  snow.  All  these  different  carriages  are  again  differ- 
ently named  according  to  their  uses  in  town  or  country ;  yet  there  is 
not  much  difference  between  them,  at  least  in  those  of  one  and  the 
same  kind,  all  the  difference  in  them  being  in  the  solidity  and  strength 
or  the  fineness  and  coarseness  of  the  finish."  i 

Some  of  these  carriages  were  furnished  with  glass  in  the  doors  and 
side-quarters,  but  the  coach  we  have  presented  on  page  226,  designed 
especially  for  travel,  was  paneled  up  very  high,  probably  the  more 
effectually  to  secure  the  passengers  against  the  attacks  of  robbers. 
But  when  coaches  came  to  be  more  generally  used  in  towns,  the  panel 
was  lowered  that  the  dames  of  France  when  riding  might  show  them- 
selves to  better  advantage.  A  modern  writer  tells  us,  "It  is  pretty 
certain,  by  reference  to  many  authorities,  that  it  was  not  the  women 
who  introduced  the  wooden  box  on  wheels  which  coaches  became  pre- 
vious to  the  application  of  glass,  for,  rather  than  not  be  seen,  they  would 
have  ridden  with  even  no  roof  to  the  char,  and  in  the  rain ;  but  the 
fact  is,  that  so  great  a  scandal  in  the  early  times  of  coach-l)uilding  was 
attached  to  the  use  of  coaches,  that  the  husbands  were  glad  to  box  up 
their  wives  who  insisted  upon  keeping  their  carriages,  and  who  thereby 
laid  themselves  open  to  the  attention  of  every  young  courtier  who  did 
not  know  what  to  do  with  his  time.  It  was  impossible  for  the  hus- 
bands to  object  to  the  use  of  glass  in  coaches,  and  so,  very  rapidly, 
after  the  first  pane  of  glass  was  seen  in  a  French  carriage,  glass  doors 
[doors  with  glass]  became  the  fashion  in  the  streets  of  Paris."  The 
first  coach  to  which  glass  was  applied  is  said  to  have  been  the  state- 
carriage  of  Louis  XIII  in  1620. 

Carriages  in  France  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  very 
costly,  the  same  l^eing  covered  with  carvings,  moldings,  and  gildings, 
so  that  with  these  and  the  upholstery  the  vehicle  was  made  many 
times  more  expensive  than  it  would  have  been  built  plainly.  We  wil 
not,  however,  go  so  far  in  our  censure  as  an  Englishman  has  done, 
and  complain  that  "the  gilding  and  carving  even  broke  out  on  the 
wheels,  not  a  single  spoke  being  allowed  to  exhibit  a  straight  line,  the 


'  Translated  expressly  for  this  work  from  Roubo's  L'Art  du  Menuisier,  pp.  458- 
4G1. 


232 


FRENCH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


center  of  the  wheel  being  embossed  till  it  looked  ji  huge  mass  of  orna- 
mentution,  and  even  the  rim  engraved  and  molded  even  far  below 
what  I  may  call  the  mud-line  "  ;  for  nothing  in  our  researches  confirms 
such  assertions,  the  carvings,  as  we  have  seen,  being  confined  to  the 
bodies,  perches,  and  standards,  except  in  the  royal  carriages.  Some 
of  these  are  preserved  in  pictorial  representation  in  the  galleries  of  the 
Louvre,  but  they  exhil)it  the  exce23tion  rather  than  the  rule.  One 
specimen  of  "high  art"  is  said  to  be  still  in  preservation  at  Toulouse, 
the  interior  of  which  is  lined  with  white  brocade  embroidered  with  a 
diaper  of  pink  roses,  the  roof  being  lined  with  the  same,  the  angles 
being  hidden  by  smiling  Cupids  in  gilt.  The  surfaces  of  the  panels 
are  pure  opaque  white,  bordered  with  a  wide  molding  of  pink  roses, 
and  the  foliage,  instead  of  being  green,  is  gilded,  and  the  whole  after- 
wards varnished. 

From  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  to  that  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  carriages  generally  seem  to  have  been  made  exceedingly 
heavy,  the  body,  as  a  rule,  being  seven  feet  long  at  the  bottom, 
and  eight  measured  on  the  roof,  the  flare  on  the  sides  ranging  from 
two  to  three  inches.  The  width  of  the  body  was  about  four  feet  six 
inches  measured  across  the  middle  at  the  doors,  and  four  feet  meas- 
ured at  each  end.  The  front  and  back  panels  in  some  instances  were 
formed  after  what  has  since  been  called  the  tub  shape,  and  at  other 
times  in  the  half-fantail  order.  Sometimes  this  last  is  denominated 
the  S  form.  The  side  panels  of  many  ancient  carriages  in  France 
were  set  oif  with  sweeping  moldings  or  consoles,  for  the  jDurpose  of 
hiding  joints  and  improving  the  finish.  The  ancient  French  carriage- 
maker  seems  to  have  studiously  avoided 
the  appearance  of  a  step  on  the  side  of 
a  coach,  and  therefore,  as  we  see  in  the 
illustration,  he  framed  his  bodies  with 
a  sinking  bottom  in  which  to  conceal 
the  step  when  not  in  use.  This,  al- 
though intended  as  an  improvement 
over  the  bodies  on  page  219,  in  which 
a  leather  apron  supplies  the  place  of 
a  door,  is  far  from  being  comely  in 
the  eyes  of  the  modern  builder.  In 
the  eye  of  a  Frenchman,  however,  the 


Ancient  Carrosse.body. 


MORE   CARRIAGES  FROM  CLUNY.  233 

step-box  was  less  objectional)lc  than  the  sight  of  a  ladder,  and  conse- 
quently lightness  was  sacrificed  to  prevailing  taste. 

During  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  century,  very  little  in  the 
line  of  invention  appears  to  have  been  accomplished,  unless  it  was  — 
under  the  name  of  improvements  —  to  make  existing  vehicles  more 
complicated  and  painfully  impracticable.  Especially  open  to  these 
charges  are  the  patents  applicable  to  traveling  carriages,  which  were 
then  in  more  demand,  caused  by  improvement  in  the  roads  throughout 
the  empire.  It  must  not,  however,  be  surmised  that  ingenuity  had 
altogether  run  wild  by  any  means,  for,  indeed,  something  really 
ingenious  was  discovered,  as  will  appear  as  we  proceed  with  our 
history. 

In  the  Musee  de  Cluny,  Paris,  is  a  fine  specimen  of  the  coacJiee, 
built  near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  with  C-springs,  over  Avhich 
are  stretched  long  thorough-braces  covered  with  fancy  stitchings  in 
black.  Two  crane-necked  iron  reaches,  with  the  front  ends  inserted 
in  a  bolster,  and  the  back  ends  running  through  the  axle,  strengthen 
the  carriage-part.  The  wheels  are  three  feet  six  inches  and  seven 
feet  high.  The  panels  are  handsomely  painted  and  ornamented  with 
figures.  Inside  curtains  and  footman's  holders  are  supplied  to  the 
body. 

In  the  same  collection  is  an  elegantly  finished  coach,  with  springs, 
such  as  shown  in  the  chaise  on  page  229.  There  are  iron  reaches 
underneath  the  body,  the  front  ends  of  which  are  inserted  in  the 
standards  or  brackets  supporting  the  foot-board.  The  body  rests  on 
thorough-braces  enclosed  in  goat-skin  profusely  ornamented  with  silk 
needle-work.  On  the  doors,  the  handles  of  which  are  in  the  middle, 
in  monogram,  are  the  initials  "T.  M.  S."  The  hind  wheels  stand  over 
seven  feet,  while  the  front  are  only  four  feet  high. 

The  last  we  have  to  notice  in  the  foregoing  collection  is  a  berliner, 
with  glass  windows  letting  down.  The  body-loops  run  the  whole 
length,  and  the  braces  of  harness  leather  which  loop  them  to  the 
French-horn  springs  are,  like  the  last,  encased  in  goat-skin.  A  single 
wooden  standard  framed  into  the  bolster,  having  an  iron  brace  at  the 
top,  supports  the  dickey-seat,  which  is  furnished  with  a  hammer- 
cloth,  the  groundwork  of  which  is  silk,  set  off  with  gimp  lace.  The 
toe-board  is  profusely  carved,  and  a  step  and  holders  are  added  for 
the  footman.     The  wheels,  which  have  ten  spokes  in  the  front  and 


234  FBENCH  WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 

twelve  in  the  back,  are  respectively  three  feet  and  six  and  a  half  feet 
high.  The  hubs,  spokes,  and  wheels  are  capped  in  a  manner  we  have 
never  seen  elsewhere. 

A  singular  mode  of  hanging  off  carriage-bodies  was  invented  and 
patented  by  one  Simon,  native  of  the  city  of  Bruxelles,  dated  June 

26,  1810.  A  back  view  showing  the 
invention  is  annexed.  The  springs 
of  the  C  form,  as  usual,  are  fixed  at 
the  top,  following  the  direction  of  the 
axle.  This  disposition  of  the  springs, 
it  is  claimed,  not  only  allows  of  a 
narrower  carriage-part,  making  it 
more  compact  and  stronger,  but  per- 
mits the  hanging  up  of  a  wider  body 
than  could  otherwise  be  done  with  a 
narrow-tracking  under-carriao-e.  The 
invention  possesses  no  real  merit,  and 
is  here  given  merely  as  a  curiosity.^ 
A  very  singular  contrivance  of  Col.  Joseph  Frangois  Louis  Grobert 
was  patented  May  19,  1818,  having  for  its  object  the  improvement 
of  cabriolets.  Two  advantages  are  claimed  for  the  invention :  first, 
to  impai-t  elasticity  to  the  movement  of  the  vehicle  when  loaded  with 
passengers,  and  to  relieve  the  draft  of  the  horses;  secondly,  to  lower 
the  center  of  gravity,  influence  the  moving  power,  and  lessen  the 
danger  of  upsetting.  This  patent  was  intended  for  both  business  and 
pleasure  vehicles.^  In  the  drawing  of  the  horse  (on  opposite  page) 
we  see  a  cropped  tail,  called  in  Europe  a  "bang-up  blood-tail,"  which, 
although  passable  in  a  light  animal,  looks  ridiculous  in  a  heavy  one. 
We  are  sorry  to  find  this  absurd  custom  gaining  popularity  in 
America.  It  is,  however,  some  degree  of  satisfaction  to  find  that  thus 
far  this  ridiculous  practice  in  short-docking  has  been  monopolized  by 
men  who  made  their  entrance  into  this  world  in  a  foreign  land.  In 
our  judgment,  these  gentry  should  be  taken  in  hand  by  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  for  mutilating  the  noble 
horse. 


'  Sec  Description  des  Brevets  d' Invention,  Vol.  VI,  PI.  II. 
2  Ibid.,  Vol.  XV,  PI.  XXIX,  Fig.  1. 


PATENT  FRENCH  CABRIOLET 


235 


Extension  tops,  very  common  in  the  United  States,  were  early  in 
nse  in  France.  Messrs.  Lcclcrq  &  Crombette,  carriage-makers,  of 
Paris,  obtained  a  patent  for  one  dated  Dec.  2^,   1822;  afterwards 


with  further  improvements,  Nov.  27,  1823.^     A  copy  of  the  original 
drawing  is  shown  on  page  23 G.     The  body  supporting  the  top  was 


'  See  Description  des  Brevets  d' Invention,  Vol.  XV,  PL  XXVII. 


236 


FRENCH    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


imitated  in  this  countiy  a  few  years  later,  the  turned  sticks  in  the 
seat  of  which  arc  similar  to  those  found  in  American  carriages  of  the 
same  date,  but  have  for  many  years  been  out  of  fashion. 


Extension   Head    for   Carriage. 

Another  rather  singular  two-wheeled  vehicle,  modeled  after  the 
coupe,  called  a  triolet,  was  invented  by  M.  Avril,  of  Paris,  Dec.  6, 
1826.  This  was  suspended  on  a  single  half-elliptic  spring,  the  center 
of  which,  resting  on,  was  secured 
to,  the  axle,  with  the  raised  ends 
•protruding  at  the  sides.  To  these 
ends  were  attached  two  upright 
standards,  reaching  higher  than 
the  roof,  at  d,  connected  by  the 


AvRiL's   Triolet. 

across  the  roof.     This 


cross-liar  /,    extending  across  the  roof.     This  vehicle   carried  three 
persons,  exclusive  of  the  driver,  who  sat  upon  the  front  seat  over 


FBENCII  ONE-WnEEL   CABBIAGE. 


237 


Tellier's   Patent    Safetv 

C  AE  n  I  AGE. 


the  step.     At  i  is  shown  a  drop  supported  by  four  chains,  the  object 
of  which  is  unknown,  i 

Two  years  later  (April  30,  1828)  M.  Jean  Louis  Tellier,  of 
Amiens,  Department  of  Somme,  con- 
trived a  machine  to  prevent  upsetting. 
This  is  done  by  rods,  a,  a,  hinged  on 
either  side  of  the  body  near  the  top, 
Avith  rowels  inserted  in  the  lower  ends. 
Should  the  vehicle  with  these  safeguards 
tilt  either  to  the  right  or  left,  the  rod 
on  the  falling  side  adjusts  itself  for  the 
emergency,  and  thereby  prevents  seri- 
ous consequences  to  the  passengers  or 
carriage.^ 

Carriages  heretofore  had  almost  inva- 
riably been  built  with  two  or  more 
wheels,  but  on  the  26th  of  April,  1832, 
one  Charles  Ilamond,  a  civil  engineer,  secured  a  patent  on  what  ho 
called  a  mono- 
cycle,  or  a  ve- 
hide  with  only 
one  wheel ; 
which,  being 
decidedly  siii 
generis,  we 
have  ha  d 
transferred  to 
our  pages. 
Fig.  1  repre- 
sents a  side 
elevation      of 

the  vehicle;  Fig.  2,  a  lurd's-eye  view  of  the  shafts,  the  front  end 
being  at  a.  The  inventor  claims  that  in  time  "  these  carriages  will  be 
preferred  to  all  others  in  transporting  the  wounded,  the  sick,  and 
women  encienfe."     Alongside  of  this  the  velocipede  is  nowhere  ! 

Carriages  were  quite  common  on  the  Continent  when  they  were  first 


MONOCYCLE. 


'  See  Description  des  Brevets  d' Invention,  Vol.  XXII,  PI.  XXII,  Fig.  1. 
2  Ibid.,  Vol.  XXVI,  PL  XIV. 


238  FRENCH  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 

introduced  into  England  in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  as  these 
pages  amply  prove.  In  design,  likewise,  at  a  still  later  period  the 
French  were  far  ahead  of  other  nations,  but  whether  this  superiority 
is  maintained  in  our  times  is  a  matter  of  some  doubt.  The  English 
dispute  it ;  and  a  writer  of  that  nation  relates  a  story  which,  if  true, 
would  seem  to  confirm  the  idea  that  English  vehicles  were  superior  to 
the  French.  Condensed,  it  runs  thus :  An  enterprising  Frenchman, 
by  the  name  of  Mitty,  having  business  connections  with  the  English 
nobility,  through  whom  he  heard  of  the  good  qualities  of  English-made 
vehicles,  and  the  higher  prices  they  sold  for  compared  with  the  French, 
felt  disposed  to  speculate  by  importing  them  from  abroad,  the  duty 
only  standing  in  the  way  of  his  plan.  This,  however,  after  study,  he 
thought  might  be  avoided  ;  and  accordingly  he  made  an  attempt,  by 
purchasing  a  barouche  and  two  landaus  in  London,  second-hand,  which 
he  shipped  to  Belgium  on  an  Ostend  packet,  which,  after  several  mis- 
haps, were  landed  at  the  destined  port,  and  sent  off  in  charge  of  friends 
by  difierent  routes  for  the  French  capital,  in  order  to  avoid  suspicion. 
Quiviac  was  the  nearest  French  border,  for  which  place,  after  hiring  a 
horse,  Mitty  himself  set  out,  changing  the  animal  a  la  poste  on  the 
road,  by  which  means  —  since  he  was  a  good  linguist,  and  understood 
the  country  well  —  he  accomplished  his  object  with  perfect  safety. 
Not  so  his  friends ;  for  one,  through  ignorance  of  French,  unfortu- 
nately took  the  road  to  Mechlin,  and  on  finding  out  the  mistake  was 
compelled  to  retrace  his  steps ;  the  other,  with  a  landau,  overtaking  a 
lady  on  the  road,  became  so  fascinated  with  her  charms  that  he  invited 
her  to  a  ride,  which  she  accepted.  The  couple  got  along  charmingly 
until  the  lady's  husband,  a  burly  Flemish  farmer,  overtook  them, 
claiming  his  wife  in  language  not  to  be  misunderstood.  A  satisfactory 
explanation  being  given,  the  smuggler  was  permitted  to  drive  on,  los- 
ing his  passport  during  the  encounter.  These  misadventures  occasioned 
some  delay,  but  eventually  they  all  reached  Paris.  Mitty,  having  soon 
adjusted  his  English  carriages  to  French  exigencies,  sold  them  at  an 
advance  upon  the  cost ;  but  the  trouble  he  underwent  in  the  specu- 
lation so  worked  upon  his  mind  that  he  vowed  that,  whatever  might 
be  his  next  adventure,  English  carriages  should  not  be  his  choice  ! 

There  is  a  kind  of  vehicle  used  in  France  and  neighboring  states, 
called  char-d-banc^  copied  after  the  national  carriage  of  Switzerland, 
where  it  is  used  as  a  kind  of  gig,  placed  sideways  upon  four  wheels, 


CHAB-l-BANG  AND    VIS-A-VIS. 


239 


ClIAR-X-BANCj 


at  .1  little  distance  from  the  ground,  and  is  furnished  with  leather  cur- 
tains made  to  draw.  This  is  the  smaller  kind.  There  is  a  larger  kind 
in  which  there  arc  two  or  more  benches  suspended  by  thongs  arranged 

one  behind  another. 
These  Swiss  vehicles 
have  been  adopted  in 
France,  where  they  have 
assumed  various  forms, 
one  of  which  is  seen  in 
the  engraving.  This  is 
a  family-carriage  for  trav- 
eling about  the  country, 
and  is  a  great  favorite 
with  the  aristocratic 
population,  being  not 
only  roomy,  but  effectually  sheltered  from  the  weather  by  sliding 
windows,  on  the  plan  of  an  omnibus,  which  in  some  respects  it  resem- 
bles. The  fore  part,  under  which  the  wheels  turn,  assumes  the  cab 
shape,  in  which  is  seated  the  driver  and  other  servants.  The  inside 
passengers,  four  or  six  in  number,  enter  by  a  side  door,  seen  in  the 
engraving,  instead  of  back,  as  is  usual  in  the  omnibus. 

Certain  vehicles  are  known  as  vis-a-vis,  which,  literally  interpreted, 
means  a  carriage  in 
which  the  passengers 
are  seated  face  to 
face  with  each  other 
for  conversation. 
There  is  a  v-ariety 
of  vehicles  known 
as  vis-a-vis  among 
Frenchmen,  receiv- 
ing different  names 
elsewhere ;  but  our 
engraving  fairly  rep- 
resents the  carriage 
generally   admitted 


as    such   by  those   in  the   carriage-trade.     More 


•  This  terra  "  char-a-banc"  is  derived  from  char,  a  chariot,  and  banc,  a  bench,  mean- 
ing a  carriage  of  benches,  otlierwise  a  row  of  benches. 


240  FBENGH  WOULD   ON  WHEELS. 

frequently  these  carriages  are  used  without  tops,  built  extremely  light 
for  European  mechanism,  suited  to  the  fine  roads  that  everywhere 
abound  in  France,  saving  the  horses  much  unnecessary  toil  and  suffer- 
ing, besides  avoiding  strain  and  injury  to  the  carriage  and  wheels. 
This  vehicle  is  mounted  on  elliptical  springs  in  front  and  platform 
springs  behind,  without  a  perch,  and  is  supplied  with  a  removable 
sun-top,  very  comfortable  and  convenient  in  summer  weather. 

The  French  have  a  class  of  vehicles  they  call  tapissi'ere.      In  their 

vernacular  it  means  tapestry  (hanging 
curtains) ,  and  receives  its  name  be- 
cause it  is  what  others  call  a  curtain 
vehicle .    A  Fre  nch- 
man    long;     ag-o 
charged      that      in 
London  "  there  was 
a  wonderful  dignity 
belonging  [applied] 
to  carts,"  but  here 
in   France   we  find 
TAPissiiKE.  them  dignified  with 

tapestry,  and  more  highly  finished  than  anywhere  else,  although 
French  authors  complain  that  "the  greater  number  of  two- wheeled 
carts  which  roll  along  the  streets  of  Paris  are  badly  made  and 
mounted." 

We  have  never  yet  satisfactorily  discovered  whether  the  dog-cart 
1)e  an  English  or  French  invention,  as  it  is  common  with  both  nations, 
where  it  is  used  for  hunting  as  well  as  pleasure-riding.  As,  however, 
neither  Felton,  Adams,  nor  other  English  writers  lay  claim  to  dog- 
carts as  l)eing  English  vehicles,  we  take  it  for  granted  that  they  are 
of  French  origin,  inventions  of  the  present  century,  since  Roubo,  who 
wrote  about  one  hundred  years  ago,  taking  especial  pains  to  enumerate 
all  carriages  then  in  use,  says  nothing  about  them  in  his  French  list. 
The  dog-cart,  on  next  page,  dates  from  about  1845,  and  is  driven 
tandem.^  Here  the  aristocratic  driver  and  his  complaisant  groom  sit 
back  to  back,  lK)lt  upright,  the  servant  with  his  feet  resting  on  the 
tail-board,  suspended  by  chains.     Among  the  ancients,  dogs  attendant 

1  Horses  arc  harnessed  tandem  when  driven  one  before  the  other.  In  horsemen's 
Latin  it  refers  to  length  of  line. 


DOG-CABT  AND  BOGUET. 


241 


on  the  hunters  were  required  to  use  their  legs,  but  in  later  times,  the 
species  having,  as  well  as  their  masters,  become  more  aristocratic,  are 


French  Dog-cart. 

now  allowed  to  ride  with  their  co7npamons  in  the  box,  hence  the  name 
dog-cart.  By  means  of  an  ingenious  contrivance  applied  to  modern 
dog-carts,  the  body  is  made  to  slide,  adjusting  the  burden  to  the  com- 
fort of  the  horse.  Notwithstanding  the  undignified  character  of  the 
name  under  which  this  class  of  vehicles  jDass,  yet  they  find  favor  with 
a  select  few  of  the  aristocracy,  for  the  simple  reason  —  nobody  else 
will  ride  in  them. 

The  French  have  in  their  carriage  list  a  vehicle  known  as  the  bo- 
guet.^     The  annexed  engraving  is  a  fair  representation  of  this  class  of 
light  two-wheeled  vehi- 
cles.     This    carriage   is 
hung  up  on  two  cradle, 
two  toe    (grasshopper), 
and     one     half  -  elliptic 
cross-spring  behind,  sup- 
plemented by  scroll-irons 
underneath     the     body. 
As  thus  mounted,  it  fur- 
nishes     an     easy-riding  bogdet. 
carriage  for  the  passenger,  but  is  unpleasantly  fitted  to  the  horse,  as  all 
two-wheeled  vehicles  unquestionably  are. 

There  is  no  mistaking  the  nativity  of  our  next  carriage.     It  is  called 
everywhere  a  coupe,  from  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the  front  part, 

•  Is  not  our  English  word  "buggy"  derived  from  the  Trench  word  boguet  ?    Aud 
are  not  the  Englisii  Tilburys  aud  Stauhopcs  simple  trausformatious  of  the  boguets? 
16 


242 


FBENCH  WOBLD   OW  WHEELS. 


Coup  6. 


supporting  the  driver's  seat,  is  attached  to  the  main  portion  of  the 
body.  The  forward  department  of  a  French  diligence  is  known  as  tlie 
coupe,  and  from  this  tlie  word  is  supposed  to  have  been  borrowed  for 

tlie  carriage  since  called  by  that 
name.  At  one  time  these  ve- 
hicles were  decidedly  popular 
in  Paris  and  elsewhere  in  Eu- 
rope, but  since  the  introduc- 
tion of  pony  and  other  phae- 
tons of  a  much  lighter  charac- 
ter, improvements  have  been 
neglected  on  the  coupe,  and 
the  vehicle  itself  is  now  in 
comparative  disuse,  except  among  the  English-speaking  people  here 
and  in  London,  where  coupes  are  much  more  handsomely  gotten  up. 
Our  design  —  of  French  origin  —  represents  the  vehicle  for  two  inside 
passengers,  but,  when  furnished  with  a  circular  front,  a  turn-down 
seat  may  be  added  for  a  child's  convenience.  For  the  use  of  ladies 
making  calls  or  engaged  in  shopping,  no  better  carriage  has  yet  been 
invented. 

Another  carriage  that  to  the  uninitiated  observer  looks  very  much 
like  the  coupe  is  called  a  demi-caleche,  the  top  being  contrived  so  as 
to  fall  back  after  removing  the  door  above  the  belt-rail,  making  it  an 
open  carriage  that  will  in 
time  in  a  great  measure  sup- 
plant the  coupe  in  park  air- 


ings. 


There  is  still  another 


pleasure-carriage,  called  by 
the  French  a  landaulet  chaise ^ 
being  below  the  belt-rail  sim- 
ilar to  the  coupe,  and  having 
above  it  a  head  (top)  like 
the  demi-caleche,  to  throw 
open  in  fair  weather.  We 
would  remark,  en  passant,  that  some  of  the  larger  kinds  of  French 
vehicles  of  the  coupe  variety,  such  as  the  coupe  de  ville  and  coupe 


D  E  M  I  -  C  A  t  E  C  H  E  . 


This  prophecy,  made  in  1873,  has  since  been  verified. 


BATES   GOVEBNING  HACK-CABBIAGES.  243 

d'Orsay,  bear  so  strong  a  resemblance  to  the  English  clarence  as  to 
almost  deprive  the  duke  of  his  claims  to  the  honor  of  an  inventor. 
Of  this,  however,  our  readers  will  judge,  after  comparison. 

We  now  for  a  moment  turn  from  the  private  to  the  consideration 
of  public  carriages  in  Paris,  where  they  are  generally  called  fiacres, 
as  previously  noticed.  In  1858  these  numbered  nearly  four  thousand, 
all  managed  by  a  consolidated  company,  guaranteed  a  monopoly  of 
trade,  but  limited  in  their  charges  by  the  city  council  to  the  following 
rates  :  to  any  distance  within  the  fortifications,  from  six  in  the  morning 
to  half  past  twelve  at  night,  for  a  two-seat  carriage  fifteen  minutes,  fif- 
teen sous  ;  for  four-seat,  the  same  period,  eighteen  sous  ;  and  for  five-seat, 
the  same  time,  twenty  sous,  with  proportional  rates  for  longer  time. 
The  charges  wore  twenty-five  per  cent  higher  the  remainder  of  the 
day,  unless  the  carriage  had  been  ordered  before  midnight,  and  more 
time  was  needed  in  which  to  complete  a  job.  When  a  carriage  had 
been  ensraored  before  six  in  the  mornino;,  but  arrived  after  that  hour, 
the  customer  paid  only  the  night  tariff.  Parcels  that  could  be  carried 
in  the  hand  went  free,  but  boxes  and  trunks,  not  exceeding  two,  paid 
four  sous,  and  any  number  above  that  could  only  be  charged  ten  cents, 
the  coachman  being  required  to  load  and  unload  free.  It  was  made 
obligatory  on  the  coachman  to  furnish  each  passenger  with  a  card  con- 
taining the  tariff"  of  prices  and  number  of  the  carriage.  The  coachmen 
were  obliged  to  follow  such  routes  as  the  passenger  indicated,  and 
drive  at  the  rate  often  kilometers,  but  in  doing  so,  should  the  carriage 
be  hindered  by  obstructions,  the  traveler  was  charged  for  any  loss  of 
time.  When  going  to  crowded  places,  such  as  balls,  theaters,  etc., 
fare  could  be  demanded  before  arrival.  To  prevent  cheating  on  the 
part  of  employes,  the  company  had  every  vehicle  numbered,  stationing 
a  clerk  at  certain  points  to  note  the  time  each  carriage  either  departed 
or  arrived,  all  being  compelled  to  stop  and  report  at  the  nearest  sta- 
tion, these  being  close  together,  no  empty  carriage  being  allowed  to 
pass  a  station  under  any  circumstances.  Only  in  cases  where  special 
contracts  were  made  coukl  the  foregoing  laws  be  nullified. 

A  literary  coach  maker  thus  complains  of  his  fellow-tradesmen  in 
1859  :  "Some  Parisians  set  themselves  up  as  first-class  dealers,  a  few 
perhaps  worthy  men,  who  manage  by  degrees  to  ruin  trade  in  fine  car- 
riages by  going  to  a  manufacturer  —  sometimes  the  manufacturer  goes 
to  them  —  and  agreeing  upon  a  price  which  is  much  under  the  costs, 


244 


FRENCH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


bringing  ruin  upon  him,  —  a  proceeding  not  more  creditable  to  him 
who  ruins  another,  than  to  liim  who  ruins  himself,  the  only  difference 
being  the  one  maintains  his  solvency  and  the  other  fails. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  second-class  dealers  arc  more  ruinous  than 
the  sharpers  among  the  former,  for  they  never  were,  though  they  go 
so  far  as  to  call  themselves  coach-makers,  although  they  keep  in  their 
show-rooms  as  many  as  fifty  carriages,  new  and  second-hand,  calling 
everything  with  wheels  and  springs  a  carriage,  the  qualities  of  their 
wares,  added  to  their  ignorance  of  the  business,  proving  very  injurious 
to  trade.  These  procure  their  stock  at  the  cost  of  old  iron  (in  fact, 
they  are  but  old-iron  mongers) ,  which  is  unworthy  the  name  of  car- 
riages, the  seller  ruining  those  who  buy  them." 

A  favorite  drive  in  Paris  is  Longchamps.  A  visitor  thus  describes 
a  scene  thereon  on  a  fine  day  in  1860  :  "  Crowded  in  this  thoroughfare 
were  carriages,  some  with  four  and  some  with  six  horses,  gliding  by, 
hung  up,  some  on  platform  and  some  on  eight  springs.  The  most 
fashionable  equipages  were  distinguished  by  very  high  and  long  bodies, 
really  possessing  a  noble  and  dignified  appearance,  the  long  look 
destroying  the  tout  ensemble"  i  but  to  crown  all,  our  writer,  who  was 
himself  a  Frenchman,  saw  "phaetons  (driven  by  persons  who  had  the 
appearance  of  perfect  gentlemen)  that  had  the  fore  wheels  of  a  large 
size,  as  high  as  the  hind  ones,  giving  the  vehicle  the  appearance  of  a 
charlatan  equipage  !  "  i 

The  next  carriage  is  called  a  hraeck,  but  whether  of  French  or 

English  invention  is 
unknown ;  we  incline 
to  think  it  French,  how- 
ever. These  are  gen- 
erally driven  with  four 
horses  when  they  are 
employed  in  park  air- 
ings, and  with  two  only 
when  used  in  the  chase. 
The  engraAnng  is  from 
a  design  by  M.  Brice 


1  This  writer  evidently  was  not  in  isyrapatliy  witli  tlie  ideas  of  our    autlior  who 
wrote  on  Emjlish  Flcasure-carriayes. 


NAMES  APPLICABLE   TO  PHAETONS. 


245 


Thomas,  of  Paris,  giving  the  reader  a  correct  idea  of  French  taste 
applied  to  such  vehicles.  These  carriages  will  accommodate  from  six 
to  eight  persons,  including  the  driver  and  servants. 

In  France,  as  in  England  and  America,  very  light  phaetons  arc 
much  used  in  pleasant  weather,  particularly  by  the  ladies,  for  whom 
they   seem   to   have   been  specially  designed.      These  phaetons,   we 

learn  from  Fel- 
ton,  were  used  in 
London  nearly  a 
century  ago,  and 
there  is  good  rea- 
son to  believe  they 
were  invented 
much  earlier.  The 
lightest     of    these 

Wicker   Phaeton,  Vehicles  liaVC   bod- 

ies made  in  frame,  interlaced  with  basket-willow,  as  shown  in  our 
engraving ;  others  are  mere  imitations  in  wood.  These  generally 
carry  two  persons,  but  sometimes  a  child  is  added.  The  French  have 
displayed  great  ingenuity  in  the  application  of  names  to  this  class  of 
carriages.  With  a  servant's  seat  attached  to  the  rear,  it  becomes 
panier  due;  with  a  dickey-seat  in  front,  it  l^ecomcs  a  mylord.  Were 
it  not  the  fact  that  many 
mylords  were  used  in  the 
humiliating  business  of  hack- 
ing, we  should  be  inclined 
to  look  upon  them  as  be- 
longins^  to  the  aristocratic 
class  of  phaetons.  Cabrio- 
let mylords  are  quite  numer- 
ous, so  are  Eugenia  cabs 
and  vis-a-vis,  many  of  which  would  be  claimed  by  Englishmen  as 
nothing  more  than  Victorias  or  Prince  Alberts,  which  they  indeed 
strikingly  reseml)le.  Vehicles  of  light  construction  are  in  Europe 
limited  to  a  small  number,  and  this  fact  has  no  doul)t  had  much  influ- 
ence upon  the  phaeton  nomenclature. 

Carriages  are  so  plenty  in  Paris,  where  they  are  driven  at  a  high 
rate  of  speed,  that  as  many  as  seven  hundred  persons  are  killed  and 


246 


FRENCH  WORLD    OK  WHEELS. 


five  thousand  more  wounded  annually,  l)eing  more  than  are  killed  on 
all  the  railways  in  Europe  during  the  same  period,  —  a  greater  de- 
struction of  life  from  like  causes  than  occurs  anywhere  else  on  this 
jilanet. 

A  part  of  our  plan,  although  at  the  risk  of  being  thought  too  prolix, 
is  to  present  to  the  minds  of  our  readers  the  various  shadings  the 
French,  English,  and  Americans  give  to  similar  carriages,  in  order 
that  by  contrast  they  may  judge  for  themselves  of  the  progress  and 


condition  of  trade  in  the  countries  named.  In  furtherance  of  this 
object  we  give  above  one  of  the  latest  designs  for  a  landau  published 
in  France.  This  vehicle  is  made  light  enough  for  one  horse, — a  feat 
seldom  undertaken  elsewhere  in  countries  where  the  horses  are  inferior 
and  the  roads  less  improved.  An  ingenious  elongation  of  the  door- 
pillars  supplies  sufHcient  room  for  the  feet  of  the  rider,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  front  and  back  quarters  look  very  light,  especially  when 
these  are  in  imitation  of  basket-work,  as  in  the  enirravino:.  To  allow 
the  front  portion  of  the  head  to  fall  properly,  the  dickey-seat  is  hinged 
and  thrown  forward,  as  occasion  may  require. 

The  next  drawing  represents  a  caleche^  on  elliptic  and  platform 
springs,   without  a  perch.     This  construction  of  carriages,   minus  a 


'  This  carriage,  although  very  popular,  is  not  claimed  as  a  French  invention.  It  is 
said  to  have  been  invented  at  Landau,  a  town  in  Western  Germany,  about  1758,  hence 
the  name.     The  invention  is  consequently  more  than  a  century  old.. 

*  Galeche  (in  English  calash)  indicates  a  carriage  with  a  falling  top. 


HOW  OLD   COACHES   ABE    UTILIZED. 


247 


'RENCH    CaLECHE 


perch,  is  one  of  the  greatest  improvements  of  modern  times,  since  a 

c  a  r  r  i  a  g  e  thus  made 
looks  very  much  light- 
er, is  more  conven- 
iently turned  about, 
and  not  nearly  so  liable 
to  rattle  when  in  use 
as  when  built  on  the 
old  plan.  These  vehi- 
cles are  generally  used 
with  two  horses,  the  poles  connecting  with  a  sort  of  yoke  called  by 
the  French  apompe,  fan- 
cifully made  of  iron,  as  ^-"'  -^  S^SM^f^J^S^MB^^-^^^^^^ 
shown  in  the  engraving. 
By  means  of  a  strap  this 
is  fastened  to  the  collar 
of  the  harness,  another 
strap  being  looped  into 
this  and  kept  in  its  prop- 
er place  liy  a  spring  fixed 
underneath  the  pole .  pomp  k  . 

What  has  become  of  the  old  coaches?  has  often  been  asked.  The 
followmg  facts  indicate  where  some  at  least  have  ffone,  bcinof  utilized 
for  building  purposes.  Recently,  while  demolishing  an  old  house  at 
Montraartre  for  the  erection  of  a  church  on  the  site,  it  was  found  the 
wainscoting  of  one  of  the  rooms  was  composed  of  wood  elegantly 
carved  and  gilded.  The  various  pieces  when  put  together  show  that 
it  was  an  old  royal  coach,  the  panels  of  which  had  l)een  used  "  to  stop 
a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away."  The  panels  are  supposed  to  be  at 
least  three  hundred  years  old,  probably  belonging  to  the  fifteenth 
century. 


248 


EyGLISH  WOBLD   OlSf  WHEELS. 


CHAPTEK    IX. 


ENGLISH    VEHICULAR    ART    AND    ITS    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATIONS. 


Carroaches,  Coaches,  lades,  and  Flanders  Mares 

Doe  rob  vs  of  our  shares,  our  wares,  our  Tares  : 

Against  the  ground  we  stand  and  knocke  our  heeles, 

Whilest  all  our  profit  runs  away  on  wheeles  ; 

And  whosoeur  but  obserues  and  notes 

The  great  increase  of  Coaches  and  of  Boates, 

Shall  finde  their  number  more  then,  e'r  they  were 

By  halfe  and  more  within  these  thirty  yeeres. 

Then  Water-men  at  Sea  had  seruice  still, 

And  those  that  staid  at  home  had  worke  at  will : 

Then  vpstart  Helcart-Coaches  were  to  seeke, 

A  man  could  scarce  see  twenty  in  a  weeke, 

But  now  I  thinke  a  man  may  daily  see 

More  then  the  Whirries  on  the  Thames  can  be."  ' 

John  Taylok's  Thief. 

ERY  little  is  known  concerning  British  vehicles 
previous  to  the  invasion  of  that  country  by  the 
Komans  under  the  leadership  of  Cains  Julius 
Csesar.     When  he  reached  the  shores  of  Britain 
he   found   an   immense   army   of  the   rude   inhabitants 
standing  ready  to  oppose  his  landing,  and  among  other 
things  it  is  stated  that  a  great  number  of  war-chariots 
were    observed,  which  were   so  adroitly  and  skillfully 
handled  by  the  ferocious  natives  that  they  very  much 
annoyed  his  army  of  expert  and  well-exercised  soldiers,  to 
whom  as  instruments  of  warfare  they  appear  to  have  been 
a  novelty.     Some  idea  of  their  numerical  importance  may 
1)0  inferred  from  the  fact  that  Cassivellaunus,  the  chief  of  the  confed- 


1  From  a  small  volume  entitled  "An  Arrant  Thicfe,  Whom  euery  Mau  may  Trust: 
In  Word  and  Deede,  Exceeding  true  and  lust.  With  a  Comparison  betweene  a  Thief 
and  a  Booke,  'Written  by  John  Taylor.'  Loudon:  Printed  by  Echo:  Aide,  for  Henry 
Gosson,  and  are  to  bee  sold  in  Panier-Alley,  1622."  In  an  edition  of  "  All  the  Workes 
of  John  Taylor.  ...  At  London,  Printed  by  J.  B.  for  lames  Boler;  at  the  signe  of  the 


LANDING   OF  CJESAB  IN  BE  IT  A  IN.  249 

erated  British  forces,  had  stationed  as  ftiany  as  four  thousand  of  these 
war-chariots '  along  the  coast  as  a  corps  of  observation  to  watch  the 
movements  of  the  invader.  In  his  account  of  a  second  invasion,  Caesar 
again  mentions  the  cavahy  and  chariots,  and  tells  us  that  the  British 
chieftain,  being  unable  to  keep  the  field,  disbanded  his  forces,  retaining 
anil/  four  thousand  chariots. 

A  few  years  afterward,  when  the  Romans  had  shamefully  abused  the 
power  they  had  obtained  by  conquest,  and  given  themselves  up  to 
every  species  of  insult  against  the  natives,  Boadicea,^  the  brave  and 
spirited  queen  of  the  Iceni,  having  collected  an  army,  undertook  to 
drive  the  Romans  out  of  the  country.  In  this  undertaking  a  great 
many  chariots  were  employed,  and  no  doubt  with  much  effect.  So 
numerous  were  the  chariots  in  the  army  of  Calgagus  (A.  D.  84),  that 
the  charioteers  and  horses  crowded  the  middle  of  the  battle-field.^ 


Marigold  in  Paul's  Churchyard,  1630,"  the  author  dedicates  the  section  in  which  the 
Thief e  is  reprinted,  "  To  any  Reader  Hee  or  Shee,  It  makes  no  matter  what  they  bee." 
This  eccentric  individual,  who  styled  himself  "the  King's  Water-Poet,"  late  in  life 
kept  the  Poet's-Head  Inn,  located  in  Phoenix  Alley,  "near  the  middle  of  Long  Aker," 
since  having  become  famous  as  the  business  street  for  coach-makers,  some  of  whom  in 
former  days  may  have  been  his  best  customers.  Born  at  Gloucester  in  1580,  he  died 
in  London,  1653,  and  was  buried  Dec.  5,  in  the  churchyard  of  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields, 
near  by. 

'  Caesar  has  left  us  a  vivid  picture  of  the  strenuous  opposition  he  met  with  from  the 
barbarians  on  landing  in  Britain  —  supposed  to  have  been  in  the  vicinity  of  Dover  — 
on  the  27th  of  August,  fifty-five  years  previous  to  the  advent  of  Christ.  (Consult 
Caesar's  De  Bella  Gallico,  B.  IV,  20.)  For  a  detailed  examination  of  this  subject,  the 
curious  reader  is  referred  to  a  paper  in  Vol.  XXI,  pp.  501-505,  of  the  Archceologia,  and 
still  another  in  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  315-320,  of  the  Antiquary. 

^  The  name  of  this  queen  is  given  by  various  authors  as  Boadicea,  Bonduca,  and 
Bonduica.  She  was  the  widow  of  PrjBsutagus,  under  whose  resentment  eighty  thou- 
sand Roman  soldiers  perished.  Gildas  calls  her  "  a  deceitful  lioness,"  and  her  soldiers 
"crafty  foxes."  Giles,  the  translator  of  Gildas,  assures  us  that  "bold  lions"  is  a 
much  more  appropriate  appellation,  and  that  her  army  would  have  been  successful 
had  it  had  but  half  the  military  advantages  of  the  Romans.  (Note  to  Bohn's  edition 
of  Gildas,  p.  301.)  When  Suetonius  commanded  the  Roman  army  (A.  D.  59),  this 
queen,  on  the  eve  of  battle,  seated  in  a  chariot  with  her  two  daughters,  incited  her 
soldiers  to  courage  by  an  harangue ;  and  when  the  fortune  of  war  appeared  to  go 
against  her,  she  with  her  chariots  prevented  the  es6ape  of  her  people.  (Tacit.,  Ann., 
XIV,  34-37.)  The  remains  of  an  entrenchment  may  still  be  seen  at  Ambresbury  Banks, 
into  which  she  retired  after  an  unsuccessful  battle,  and  committed  suicide  rather  than 
survive  indignity  and  defeat.  A  plain  brick  column  on  the  estate  of  Sir  F.  Foxwell 
Buxton  marks  the  spot  where  she  died. 

'^  Tacit,  in  Agricola,  eh.  35. 


250 


ENGLISH   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


British  chariots  have  l)eeii  tlescribed  by  Eoman  historians  as  con- 
sisting of  two  kinds,  called  respectively  the  covina  and  the  esseda;  this 
last  from  esse,  a  Celtic  word.  The  former  was  very  heavy  and  armed 
with  scythes ;  the  latter  much  lighter,  and  consequently  better  calcu- 
lated for  use  in  situations  where  it  would  be  difficult  to  employ  the 
covina.  Some  of  these  chariots  were  so  contrived  that  when  the 
warrior  dismounted  during  a  battle,  he  ran  along  a  pole  attached  to 


British   Covina,    with   Implements    of   Warfare. 

the  side,  from  whence,  or  from  the  yoke,  he  engaged  the  enemy, 
retiring  into  his  chariot  again  as  prudence  or  choice  dictated.  Among 
the  Britons  the  most  honorable  guided  the  chariot,  while  the  depend- 
ants did  the  fighting.  ^ 

The  covinas  mounted  each  a  charioteer  for  driving,  and  one,  two,  or 


'  Tacit,  in  Agricoln,  cli.  V. 


BBITISH  CIIABIOTS  IN  BATTLE.  251 

more  warriors  for  fighting.  These  were  evidently  ])uilt  exceedingly 
strong,  having  the  extremities  of  the  axle-tree  armed  with  scythes  of 
a  hooked  form,  as  we  have  elsewhere  seen  in  this  vokime,  contrived 
for  tearing  and  cutting  whatever  came  in  the  way  while  being  driven 
rajDidly  over  the  battle-field.  The  horses  of  these  rude  people  are  said 
to  have  reached  such  perfection  in  training  that  they  could  be  driven 
with  speed  over  the  most  uneven  portions  of  the  country,  even  through 
the  forests  at  that  period  abounding  in  the  island.  Such  was  the 
celerity  of  the  British  chariots  that  the  Eomans  were  perfectly  aston- 
ished, scarcely  knowing  how  to  receive  them ;  so  that  the  British  had 
wellnigh  obtained  a  victory  in  the  first  encounter.  Subsequent  expe- 
rience, however,  on  the  part  of  the  Romans,  provided  a  remedy  against 
danger  from  such  onsets.  When  Agricola  fought  the  Caledonians  on 
the  Grampian  Hills,  the  barbarian  charioteers  filled  the  middle  of  the 
field  "with  tumult  and  careering."  After  the  battle  had  begun,  the 
Eoman  horse  in  the  wings  of  the  army  proceeding  up  the  hill,  not 
being  able  to  withstand  the  shock  of  the  chariots,  gave  way,  and  were 
pursued  by  the  British  chariots  and  horse,  which  then  fell  in  among 
the  Roman  infantry.  This  last  closing  in  upon  the  chariots  and  horse, 
when  they  became  entangled  amidst  the  inequalities  of  the  ground, 
were  no  longer  able  to  wheel  and  career  as  upon  the  open  plain,  and 
very  soon  straggling  chariots  and  afi*righted  horses  without  their  riders 
were  seen  rushing  obliquely  athwart,  or  directly  through  the  lines, 
scattered  disorderly  over  the  field. i 

The  essedce  carried  only  one  person,  and  are  supposed  to  have  been 
invented  by  the  Belgians,  and  by  them  introduced  into  Britain. ^  The 
charioteer  was  by  the  Romans  called  an  essedarius.  Claudius  had  an 
esseda  so  easy-riding  that  he  played  a  game  while  traveling. ^  In  a 
"Treatise  on  the  Study  of  Antiquities,"  by  Mr.  Pownall,  it  is  said  that 


'  Tacit,  in  Agricola,  cli.  35,  36.  *  Ibid.,  cli.  35. 

•*  "  Aleam  studiosissimae  lusit,  de  cujus  arte  librum  qnoque  eraisit :  solitus  etiam  in 
gestatione  ludere,  ita  essedo  alveoque  adaptatis,  ne  lusiis  confunderetur." — Suet., 
CI.,  33.  "  Album  iucoquitur  sereis  operibus  Galliarum  iuvento,  ita  ut  viae  discerniqueat 
ab  argento,  eaque  incoctilia  vocant.  Deiude  et  argentum  incoquere  siraili  modo  coe- 
pere,  equorum  raaxime  oruamentis  juraentorumque  jugis  in  Alexia  oppido :  reliqua 
gloria  Burturigum  fuit.  Coepere  deinde,  et  esseda,  et  vehicula,  et  petorita  exornare, 
sirailquc  modo  ad  aurea  quoque,  non  modo  argentea,  staticula  iuanis  luxuria  pervenit : 
quaeque  in  scypliis  cerni  prodigrum  erat,  hec  iu  vehiculis  atteri,  cultus  vocatur."  — 
Pliny,  XXXIV,  17. 


252 


ENGLISH    WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 


British  Essedum. 


"the  front  of  the  body  [of  the  esseda]  was  made  breast-high,  and 
rounded  like  a  sliield,  so  as  to  answer  for  the  driver  the  purpose  of  that 
defense,  and  was  for  that  reason  called  damdioxpi],  or  the  shield  part. 
The  sides  of  the  chariot  sloped  away  back- 
wards almost  to  the  bottom  or  floor  of  the 
body."  In  reviewing  these  statements,  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Peo;2:e,  in  the  seventh  volume 
of  the  "  Archeeologia,"  tells  us  that  "  it  is 
impossible  this  should  be  the  figure  of  the 
body  of  the  British  esseda  ;  and  therefore, 
with  all  due  deference  to  the  gentleman's 
opinion,  a  distinction  should  be  made  be- 
tween the  military  chariots  used  at  Troy  or  in  Greece  or  elsewhere, 
and  those  employed  by  our  Britons,  which  must  of  necessity  have  been 
of  a  very  different  figure.  In  regard  to  the  warriors  running  along 
the  pole,  it  is  no  objection  with  me  that  the  body  of  the  carriage  in 
the  East  was  low,  as  Mr.  Pownall  represents  it,  because  the  construc- 
tion here  in  Britain  might  be  materially  different  in  that  respect  from 
that  used  an- 
ciently there." 
The  annexed 
engraving  we 
find  in  Ginz- 
rot's  volume, 
but  doul)t  its 
authenticity, 
the  balance  of 
testimony 
showing  the 
esseda  to  have 
been  open  at 
the  back  end. 
The  Roman- 
British  period 
(A.  D.  78  to 
A.  D.  400) 
furnishes  us 
with  very  little 


Essedum. 


-After   Gin  z  rot. 


^ht  into  the  progress  of  art,  no  writer  having  given 


FEAGMENT  OF  AN  ANCIENT  WHEEL. 


253 


much  attention  to  this  subject. ^  Some  years  ago,  among  other  curios- 
ities found  at  Hamden  Hill,  near  the  village  of  Stone-unden-Hamden, 
at  a  short  distance  from  the  great  Foss  road  which  passes  from  Bath 
to  the  sea-coast,  several  fragments  of  chariot-wheels  were  discovered, 
one  of  which  was  quite  perfect.  It  is  conjectured  that  in  early  times 
some  great  battle  took  place  on  the  hill  we  have  named ;  for  besides 
the  chariot- wheels,  a  lance, 
arrow-heads  of  iron,  and  hu- 
man bones  were  discovered, 
"  amongst  which,"  says  our 
authority,  "I  observed  a  skull 
with  a  barbed  arrow  trans- 
fixed, and  I  was  assured  that 
it  was  found  in  that  position. 
I  have  ever  entertained  an 
opinion  that  the  ancient  char- 
iots were  slight  in  their  tex- 
ture, and  the  wheel  found 
here  in  an  almost  entire  state 
seems  to  corroborate  that  idea, 
as  it  scarcely  exceeds  the 
dimensions  of  a  grinder's 
wheel."  2  The  spokes  were  two  inches  thick  and  five  and  a  half  inches 
apart  at  the  felloes ;  the  wheel  itself  being  thirty  inches  in  diameter, 
having  twelve  spokes  in  all. 

Strutt,  in  his  "Manners  and  Customs  of  England,"  mentions  a  kind 
of  chariot  in  use  among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  which  he  supposes  was 
derived  from  the  ancient  British  essedum.^  Evidently  some  progress 
must  have  been  made  in  the  art  of  vehicle-construction  among  these 

*  The  original  colonists  of  Britain  are  supposed  to  have  been  from  two  nomadic 
tribes,  Cimbrians  and  Celts,  which  emigrated  from  the  shores  of  the  Thracian  Bospho- 
rus  to  the  northern  shores  of  Europe. 

'■Trom  a  paper  written  in  1823  by  Sir  Eich.  Colt  Hare,  Bart.,  P.  E.  S.  and  S.  A., 
published  in  Vol.  XXI  of  the  Archccologia. 

^  The  Anglo-Saxon  period  extends  ft-om  A.  D.  450  to  A.  D.  lOlG.  In  the  Life  of  St. 
ErJcenwald,  who  died  in  A.  D.  8G5,  occurs  the  following  words  :  "  Quandam  vero  die, 
vcrbi  Dei  pabula,  commisso  sibi  gregi,  ministratmus,  dum  duarum  rotarura  ferretum 
vehiculo,  inflrmatate  pra3pediente,  vol  seni,  coutigit  ut  altera  rotassura  semitis  dillicul- 
tate  axem  relinqucrit,  et  ibidem  socia  relicta  remanarct."  (See  Sir  William  Dugdale's 
Hist,  of  St.  Paul's  Cath.,  fol.  Apend.,  p.  5.) 


Fragment   of 


254 


ENGLISH   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


people ;  although,  as  is  well  known,  the  so-called  nobility  preferred 
horsel)ack  riding  above  any  other.  Concerning  the  British  chariots, 
Fairholt  observes,  "It  is  true  that  upon  the  earliest  British  coinage 
we  have  rude  chariots  delineated,  each  holding  a  single  rider,  but 
these  are  only  barbaric  copies,  each  worse  than  its  predecessor,  of  the 
coins  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  and  resembling,  as  they  also  do,  the 
equally  rude  Gaulish  and  other  coins  of  Northern  nations,  can  only  ])e 
received  at  the  utmost  as  proofs  of  the  universality  of  chariot-riding, 
and  not  as  particular  types  of  any  one  nation's  peculiar  chariot.  Be- 
fore we  take  even  coins  or  ancient  monuments  as  authority  for  any  one 
nation,  we  must  be  sure  that  they  are  the  genuine  products  of  that 
nation,  uninfluenced  by  foreign  conventionalities."  ^ 

The  writer  previously  quoted  mentions  "that  the  Roman  war-chariot 
was  doubtless  well  known  in  Britain  after  its  subjugation"  ;  and  it  has 
been  supposed  that  the   Saxon  chariot,   of  which  an   illustration  is 

annexed,  is  but  a 
rude  imitation  of  the 
biga  of  classic  fame. 
As  we  have  nowhere 
in  our  researches 
found  any  proof  that 
chariots  as  instru- 
ments of  war  were 
employed  by  the  Ro- 
mans, the  simple 
opinion  of  a  modern 
author  has  but  little 
value.  The  illustra- 
tion probably  represents  some  vehicle  used  by  the  higher  class  of  our 
Saxon  ancestors,  having  no  comiection  whatever  with  warfare.  The 
charioteer  is  evidently  a  female,  and  this  alone  is  proof  sufficient  that 
it  was  designed  for  pacific  purposes.  Indeed,  as  Strutt  informs  us, 
"the  chaep,  or  chariot,  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  used  on  civil  occa- 
sions for  the  conveyance  of  distinguished  personages,  the  others  riding 
in  carts." 


AXON   Chariot. 2 


Loudon  Art  Union  Journal,  1847,  p.  119. 

From  the  Cottonian  MSS.,  Cleopatra,  C,  4,  British  Museum. 


AWGLO-SAXON  HAMMOCK   GABRIAGE.  255 

The  existence  of  hooks  and  scythes  especially  to  British  chariots  has 
been  disputed,  since  neither  CcBsar,  Tacitus,  nor  any  other  contempo- 
raneous writer,  except  Pomponius  Mela,  who  wrote  in  the  first  cen- 
tury, mentions  the  fact.  Weapons  answering  the  description  of  such 
instruments,  however,  have  been  found  on  ancient  battle-fields.  It  is 
also  recorded  that,  between  the  time  of  CiBsar's  invasion  and  that  after- 
wards ordered  by  Claudius,  these  British  chariots  attracted  notice  and 
were  exhibited  as  curiosities  in  Italy,  and  shown  in  the  splendid  pa- 
geantry with  which  Caligula  passed  over  the  sea  from  Puteoli  to  Baite, 
on  a  1)ridge  framed  of  boats.  Suetonius  tells  us  that  he  himself  rode 
in  a  chariot  of  British  construction,  followed  by  a  party  of  friends. 
These  chariots  were  undoubtedly  British  trophies  captured  by  the 
Romans.  In  after  times  these  war-chariots  were  frequently  alluded  to 
by  the  historians  and  poets  of  Rome.  A  great  fondness  for  horses, 
and  skill  in  riding  and  accustoming  them  to  drawing  cars  and  chariots, 
appear  to  have  prevailed  among  all  the  Celtic  tribes  of  the  British 
Isles. 

A  manuscript  in  the  British  Museum,  supposed  to  have  been  written 
by  Elfricus,  Abbot  of  Malmsbury,  in  the  tenth  century,  contains  the 
rude  drawing  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  machine,  on  which  a  great  waste  of 
ink  has  been  made  in  discussing  the  question  as  to  whether  it  should 
be  taken  as  the  simple  representation 
of  a  wheel-bed  for  travel  to  the  "Land 
of  Nod,"  or  a  veritable  carriage  for 
wide-awake  people.  A  copy  of  it, 
called  by  Strutt  a  four-wheeled  ham- 
mock, is  here  shown.  The  occupant, 
of  colossal  proportions  in  comparison 
with  the  machine,  is  clothed  with  an 
ordinary  Saxon  tunic,  having  wrin- 
kled sleeves,  and  hands  extended  as 
though  engaged  in  her  evening  devo- 
tions, which  seems  to  favor  the  idea  of  its  being  intended  for  a  bed  on 
wheels.  Indeed,  the  hammock-like  shape  of  the  body,  dependino- 
from  hooks  in  the  posts,  rather  confirms  such  an  opinion.  As  a  late 
writer  observes,  supposing  it  to  represent  a  carriage,  "The  patient. 


MOCK  Carriage.' 


CoUonian  MSS.,  Claudius,  B,  4,  British  Museum. 


256 


ENGLISH  WOBLD    OW  WHEELS. 


we  will  not  call  her  the  traveler,  got  in,  and  then  she  must  have  had 
to  endure  an  amount  of  shaking  and  banging  which  is  positively  ter- 
rible to  imag-ine.  In  the  state  of  the  roads  at  that  date,  what  could 
have  saved  the  unhappy  passenger  from  continued  and  horrible  con- 
cussion of  the  wheels  ?  "  ^ 

In  common  with  other  nations,   our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  were 
compelled,  in  cultivating  the  soil,  to  employ  in  the  first  stages  of 

colonization  vehicles,  often  of  the 
rudest  construction,  from  which 
the  limners  of  the  age  are  sup- 
posed to  have  taken  their  models. 
The  annexed  engraving  of  an 
Anglo-Saxon  cart  is  the  product 
of  such  circumstances.  The  ven- 
erable passenger  is  supposed  to 
represent  the  patriarch  Jacob  on 
Anglo- Saxon  Cart. 2  -j-j-^g    journey   from    Canaan    into 

Egypt,  the  picture  itself  being  copied  from  a  manuscript  Pentateuch 
of  the  tenth  century.  The  "royal  personage,"  as  he  is  called  in  the 
parchment,  bears  the  same  disproportion  with  the  team  that  character- 


'  Apropos  of  wheeled  beds,  Marklaiid  tells  us  that  "iu  Harmar's  translation  of 
Beza's  Sermons  upon  the  three  first  chapters  of  the  Canticles,  printed  1587  (Ser. 
XXVIII,  p.  374),  a  passage  reads,  'ffing  Solomon  made  himself  a  coche  of  the  wood 
of  Lebanon.'  (Ch.  iii,  v.  9.)  This  word  has  at  different  times  been  rendered  palace- 
bed,  and,  in  the  authorized  version,  chariot.  In  "Wickliff's,  it  is  a  chaier ;  in  the  Vul- 
gate, feculum.  The  Hebrew  makes  it  a  bridal-couch,  or  room.  This  tends  to  prove 
that  the  true  derivation  of  the  word  [coach]  is  from  coucher,  and  that  it  implied  origi- 
nally a  movable  couch  or  bed.  We  need  not,  therefore,  resort,  with  Minshew,  for  the 
etymology  of  the  word,  to  Kotzsche  (a  verbo  Hungarico  Kotozij),  or  to  Coiichey,  the 
Cambridge  carrier ;  yet  the  following  passage,  selected  from  the  Diarij  of  Custinian, 
Mayor  of  Vienna  (which  I  owe  to  the  researches  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Douce),  goes  to 
establish  the  former.  The  writer,  in  speaking  of  a  visit  made  to  that  city  in  1515,  by 
Maximilian,  and  the  kings  of  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and  Poland,  says,  '  Ingrediebantur 
toto  die  Viennam  currus,  quadrigae  et  bigse  Hungarorum,  et  Polonorum.  Vehebantur 
multi  in  curribus  illis  velocibus,  quibus  nomen  est  patriae  lingua  Kottschi.'  (Vide 
Germanicorum  verum  Scriptores  varii  3Iargardi  Freheri,  1637,  fol.  ii,  p.  312.)"  In  this 
connection  it  may  be  mentioned  that  a  volume  entitled  The  Triumph  of  Maximilian, 
written  by  J.  Burgkmair  during  the  years  1516,  1517,  and  1518,  is  still  extant,  where 
we  are  told  "the  curious  reader  will  find  plates  of  various  carriages  or  cars,  some 
drawn  by  horses,  some  by  camels,  some  by  stags,  and  others  impelled  forward  by 
means  of  different  combinations  of  toothed  wheels,  worked  by  men." 

2  From  the  Cottonian  MSS.,  Claudius,  B,  4,  British  Museum. 


Al^GLO-SAXON  TBUCK  AND   CABT. 


25T 


izes  the  last  figure,  both  being  the  work  of  the  same  hand.  Such  is 
the  rudeness  of  the  drawing  that  it  is  difficult  to  determine  the  species 
of  the  draft-animals.     Probably  they  were  designed  to  represent  mules. 

A  different  kind  of  cart  is  shown  in  the  next  engraving,  unquestion- 
ably designed  for  business  purposes.  The  construction  is  very  simple, 
consisting  of  a  long, 
heavy,  flat  board  made 
fast  to  the  axle-tree, 
and  supported  by  two 
heavy  high  wheels.  In 
the  original  picture  a 
single  horse,  attached 
to  the  chain,  is  driven  anglo-saxon  truck. i 

by  a  man  standing  on  the  plank  l^ody.  , 

The  next  engraving  represents  an  Anglo-Saxon  harvest-scene,  taken 
from  a  work  illustrative  of  the  seasons.  The  cart,  which  is  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  the  picture,  is  of  much  later  date  than  the  preceding, 
prol^ably  belonging  to  the  eleventh  century.  It  is  remarkable  in  being 
open  at  both  ends  of  the  body,   and  having  the   sides  ornamentally 


Cart,  "vtith   Anoi-o-Saxon  Hakvest-scene. 


painted.  The  projections  in  the  rear,  which  support  the  man  manip- 
ulating the  pitchfork,  are  novelties  we  do  not  remember  to  have  else- 
where seen.  This  vehicle  was  used  as  a  horse-cart,  if  the  construction 
of  the  thills  prove  anj^thing. 

The  Norman  knights,  taking  especial  pride  in  horsemanship  in  their 
own  country,  looked  upon  any  other  mode  of  conveyance  as  disgrace- 


'  From  the  CoUonian  3ISS.., 
17 


"Tiberias,  B,  5,  British  Museum. 


258  ENGLISH    WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

fill  effeminacy,  even  among  the  ladies ;  but  when  the  Conqueror  and 
his  followers  came  into  England,  they  introduced  the  horse-litter,  a 
mode  of  conveyance  employed  more  or  less  until  the  days  of  King 
John  (A.  D.  1206-1216).     This  mode  of  travel  is  said  to  have  been 

Horse. i,iTTER   of   the   Time   of   Edward    111.         ,     .         '^      '         ^  o-    -i 

tam-passes  oi  feicily. 

The  horse-litter  at  one  period  was  used  by  persons  of  the  most 
exalted  station  in  life.  William  of  Malmsbury  says  that  the  body  of 
William  Eufus  was  placed  upon  a  rheda  caballaria,  a  kind  of  horse- 
chariot,  or  as  Fabian  translates  it,  horse-litter ;  and  King  John,  ac- 
cording to  Matthew  of  Westminster,  was  conveyed  from  Swineshed 
in  lectica  equestri,  i.  e.,  the  horse-litter.  When  Queen  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Henry  YII,  visited  Scotland,  she  is  described  as  riding  on 
a  "  faire  palfrey,"  but  following  her  was  "  convayed  l)y  two  footmen 
one  very  riche  litere,  borne  by  two  faire  coursers  varey  nobly  drest,  in 
the  wich  litere  the  sayd  queue  was  borne  in  the  intrying  of  the  good 
tounes,  or  otherways  to  her  good  playsur."  Behind  came  "a  char 
richly  drest,  with  sixe  faire  horsys  leyd  and  convayed  by  thre  men,  in 
the  wich  were  four  ladyes  lasting  the  sayd  voyage."  i 

As  late  as  1589,  Sir  Francis  Willoughby  applied  to  the  Countess 
of  Shrewsbury  for  her  horse-litter  and  furniture  for  the  use  of  his 
wife,  who  being  sick  could  neither  travel  "on  horseback  or  in  a 
coache."  The  use  of  litters  as  state  carriages  continued  until  the  times 
of  Charles  I.     The  latest  mention  of  them  is  by  Evelyn  in  1640.2 

In  the  course  of  time,  the  gallant  Normans,  considering  it  disgraceful 
for  the  ladies  to  use  litters,  invented  a  sort  of  chariot,  which  they 
called  chares ^  for  their  special  use.  These  chares  appear  to  have  l)een 
the  earliest  pleasure-carriages  used  in  England,  and  the  prototypes  of 
close  carriages.  That  chares  were  conveyances  distinct  from  litters  is 
evident  from  the  list  of  presents  made  in  1604  by  the  Duke  of  Florence 

'  See  Lelaud's  Collectama,  IV,  p.  2G7.  ^  Evelyn's  Diary,  Vol.  I,  p.  9. 


CHABES  FOB   THE  LADIES.  259 

to  the  royal  family,  where  they  are  thus   particularized :    "  To  the 
Queene  11  moyles  and  a  litter ;  to  the  Prince  a  verie  fayre  chayre."  i 

In  a  curious  old  Latin  poem  by  Richard  of  Maidstone,  on  the  recon- 
ciliation (about  1381)  between  Richard  II  and  the  citizens  of  London, 
the  queen,  in  her  ceremonious  entrance  with  her  husband  into  the 
capital,  is  represented  as  having  two  chares  with  ladies  in  her  train ; 
and  the  writer  tells  us,  rather  exultingly,  how  one  of  them  was  over- 
turned, whereby  the  persons  of  the  ladies  were  exposed  to  the  gaze  of 
the  multitude,  which  he  looks  upon  as  a  punishment  for  their  presump- 
tion.^ These  chares  in  after  times  became  extremely  popular,  being 
frequently  alluded  to  by  historians  and  poets.  An  unedited  old  version 
of  Scripture  history,  entitled  "  Curror  Mundi,"  quoted  in  Hallowell's 
''Dictionary  of  Archaic  and  Provincial  Words,"  when  describing  how 
Joseph  sent  to  fetch  his  father  into  Egypt,  has  the  following  lines  :  — 

"  Nay,  sir,  but  ye  not  to  him  fare, 
He  hath  not  sent  aftir  the  his  chare  : 
"We  shul  5'Ou  make  they  une  a  bed, 
Into  Egypte  ye  shul  be  led."^ 

In  "The  Squyr  of  Low  Degree,"  supposed  to  have  been  written 
before  Chaucer's  time,  the  father  of  the  Princess  of  Hungary  promises 
her  that  if  she  would  forsfet  him  for  whom  her  heart 


that. 


"  was  grieved,  as  only  maids  could  be, 
That  love,  and  loose  like  her,  a  squire  of  low  degree," 

"  To-morrow  we  ride  with  all  our  train, 
To  meet  our  cousin  of  Aquitaine  ; 
Be  ready,  daughter,  to  go  with  us  there 
At  the  head  of  the  train  in  a  royal  chair. 
The  chair  shall  be  covered  with  velvet  red, 
With  a  fringed  canopy  overhead, 
And  curtains  of  damask,  white  and  blue. 
Fissured  with  lilies  and  silver  dew  : 


*  Hunter's  HallamsMre,  p.  94. 

^  "  Namque  sequunter  earn  currus  duo  cum  dorminabus ; 
Kexerant  hos  phaeton  unos  enim  cecedit. 
Femina  ferainea  sua  dum  sic  femina  nudat, 
Vix  posterat  risum  plebs  retinere  suum. 
Currus  est  iste  i)lacet,  veniat,  rogo  quod  mihi  signet, 
Covinant  ut  luxus  et  malus  omnis  amor." 
'  llallowcirs  Dictionary,  p.  192. 


260  ENGLISH  WOELD    ON  WHEELS. 

Purple  your  robe,  with  ermine  bands  ; 

Tiie  finest  fir  of  the  northern,  lands  ; 

Enameled  chains  of  rare  devise, 

And  your  feather  a  bird  of  paradise  I 

And  what  will  you  have  for  a  dainty  steed  ? 

A  Flanders  mare '  of  the  royal  breed  ? 

An  English  blood  ?  a  jennet  of  Spain  ? 

Or  a  Barbary  foal  with  a  coal-black  mane  ? 

We  still  have  the  Soldan's  harness,  sweet ! 

The  housings  hung  to  the  horses'  feet, 

The  saddle-cloth  is  sown  with  moons, 

And  the  bridle-'bells  jingle  the  blithest  tunes."  ^ 

But,  as  has  been  the  case  with  many  "maids"  since,  whose  "rosy 
cheeks  have  been  by  the  soft  winds  kissed,"  the  princess  preferred  her 
"  squyr  of  low  degree  "  to  all  other  enjoyments,  — 
"  '  But  I  would  rather,'  says  she, 

'  My  loving  squyr  of  low  degree. 

Kot  a  gaudy  chair  nor  days  of  chase 

Reward  me  for  his  absent  face.'  " 

Chaucer,  in  describing  the  "char"  of  Zenobia,  says  it  was 

"  With  gold  wrought  and  pierrie";^ 
and  likewise  mentions 

"  The  char  of  gold  of  the  King  of  Thrace."  * 
Skelton  thus  alludes  to  them  :  — 

"  Kowe  all  the  world  stares 
How  they  ryde  in  goodly  chares."  * 

Another  kind  of  carriage  in  use  at  this  time  was  called  the  whirli- 
cote.  Stow,  when  relating  the  history  of  Wat  Tyler's  rebellion,  which 
happened  in  1380,  tells  us  that  Eichard  II,  "being  threatened  by  the 
rebels  of  Kent,  rode  from  the  Tower  of  London  to  Mile-end,  and  with 
his  mother,  because  she  was  sick  and  weak,  in  a  whirlicote  of  old 
time"  It  would  seem  from  the  latter  part  of  the  clause  that  whirli- 
cotes,  whatever  they  may  have  been,  had  been  long  in  fashion.     The 

1  When  Cromwell,  in  1649,  set  out  for  Ireland,  he  rode  in  a  coach  with  "six  gallant 
Flanders  marcs,  whitish-gray,  divers  coaches  accompanying  him." — Carlyle's  Letters 
and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell.  In  a  curious  will,  made  in  1506,  by  Eobei't  Jakes,  of 
Leicestershire,  he  gives,  "To  my  daughter  Jane  Warying  an  amblying  mare,  of  can- 
dell  color,  with  a  fole." 

*  Ellis's  Specimens  of  Early  English  Poetry.  ^  Canterbury  Tales,  v.  143C6. 

*  Canterbury  Tales,  v.  2140.  *  Colin  Clout,  1.  963. 


LONO-WAGONS   FOB    TBAVELING. 


261 


same  author  says  that  "  coaches  were  not 
known  in  this  island  [Engkmd] ,  but  char- 
iots or  whirlicotes,  then  so  called;  and  they 
only  used  of  princes,  or  men  of  great  estates, 
such  as  had  their  footmen  about  them.  The 
next  year  after  Richard  had  married  Anne 
of  Bohemia,  she  introduced  the  fashion  of 
ridinof  on  horseback ;  and  so  was  the  ridinof 
of  these  whirlicotes  and  chariots  forsaken, 
except  at  coronations  and  such  like  specta- 
cles." ^  But  we  are  anticipating  chronology, 
and  must  go  back  a  few  years. 

Near  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury,^ the  long-wagon,  shown  in  the  annexed 
illustration,  became  very  popular  as  a  trav- 
eling carriage,  and  when  used  by  persons  of 
high  rank  was  frequently  richly  decorated, 
and  the  most  interesting  vehicle  of  the  j)eriod. 
Our  engraving  is  copied  from  an  illumination 
in  the  famous  psalter  executed  for  Sir  Geof- 
frey Louttrell.  The  vehicle  is  drawn  by  five 
horses  hitched  together  by  ropes  in  a  very 
simple  manner,  guided  by  two  riders,  each 
carrying  whips  of  diiferent  lengths.  The 
wagon  carries  coronated  dames,  one  of  whom, 
seated  in  front,  has  a  squirrel  sitting  on  her 
shoulder,  another,  behind,  receives  a  pet  dog 
from  a  mounted  cavalier.  The  bows  or  ribs, 
which  support  a  richly  constructed  covering, 
are  nicely  arched,  the  faulty  perspective 
showing  longitudinal  bars  or  stays,  the  ends 
of  which  terminate  in  carvings  representing 
grotesque  heads.  The  head  has  two  openings 
in  each  side,  answering  the  purpose  of  win- 
dows or  lookouts  for  the  convenience  of  the 
inside  passengers.     The  birds  in  front  and 


m 


a 


^ 


'  Stow's  Chronicle. 


^  Temp.  Heury  VI. 


262  ENGLISH   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

rear  serve  as  additional  ornaments  to  the  whole,  while  the  chest 
beneath  the  reach  is  very  useful  as  the  deposit  for  tools  required  in 
repairing  damages  caused  by  the  uneven  roads  of  former  days.  The 
old  English  talbot  trotting  beside  the  vehicle  is  a  suitable  representa- 
tive of  the  canine  species  of  the  ancients,  as  we  have  previously  seen. 
Such  vehicles,  nicely  fitted  out  with  soft  cushions  and  beds,  although 
deficient  in  springs,  must  have  proved  very  comfortable  turnouts  in 
the  earlier  days  of  travel. 

Markland  supposes  that  the  horse-litter  and  chare  were  the  most 
ancient  vehicles  of  travel  in  use  among  the  nobility  of  England,  and 
that  these  were  seldom  employed  except  in  cases  of  sickness  or  on 
ceremonial  occasions,  and  that  the  chariot  which  Mr.  Pegge  ^  regards 
"as  the  elder  vehicle,  or  rather  the  coach  in  its  infancy,"  was  originally 
nothing  more  than  a  wagon  or  cart.  Probably  the  word  "chariot  * 
primarily  signified  nothing  more  than  a  wagon  ^  as  it  is  thus  rendered 
in  Cottgrave's  Dictionary,  published  as  late  as  1632  ;  also,  in  some 
passages  of  Scripture.  Where,  in  the  authorized  translation,  mention 
is  made  of  wagons,  the  earlier  versions  read  charett,  or  chariot ;  in  the 
Vulgate,  it  is plaustra;  and  in  Wickliff's  version,  waynes. 

Markland,  before  named,  to  whose  industry  we  are  indebted  for 
much  of  the  knowledge  we  have  on  this  subject,  fittingly  observes  that 
"the  reign  of  Elizabeth  [1558-1603]  is  generally  c]^ed  as  the  period 
when  coaches  were  introduced  into  England " ;  and  under  that  term 
carriages  of  every  kind  have  been  considered  as  included;  but  long 
anterior  to  her  reign  vehicles  on  wheels,  under  the  names  of  chares, 
cars,  chariots,  carroaches,^  and  whirlicotes,  were  used  in  the  island. 

*  See  Dr.  Samuel  Pegge's  Anecdotes  of  Old  Times,  pp.  273-273. 

*  Some  authors  tell  us  that  coach  and  carroach  were  terms  formerly  applied  to  the 
same  carriage.  This,  however,  may  be  disputed,  since  John  Taylor,  in  the  passage  at 
the  head  of  this  chapter,  mentions  both  in  the  same  line.  In  describing  a  visit  he 
made  to  Prague  in  1616,  he  informs  us,  — 

"  Their  coaches  and  carroaches  are  so  rife, 
They  doe  attend  on  every  tradesman's  wife." 
The  idea  that  two  different  vehicles  are  meant  is  strengthened  by  the  following  lines 
from  Green's  Tu  Quoque,  6,  P.  VII,  28  :  — 

"  Nay  for  a  need,  out  of  his  easy  nature, 
Mayst  draw  him  to  the  keeping  of  a  coach 
For  country,  and  carroach  for  London." 
In  the  well-known  letter  of  Lady  Compton,  the  rich  heiress  of  Sir  John  Spencer,  writ- 


ROBERT   WESTENDE,   CIIAEIOT  PURVEYOR.  263 

Indeed,  it  is  sufficiently  obvious  that  a  people  progressive  in  civiliza- 
tion, and  having  commercial  intercourse  with  other  nations,  where 
they  abounded,  would  not  long  remain  without  importing,  or  manu- 
facturing for  themselves,  luxuries  such  as  carriages  manifestly  are, 
even  in  the  face  of  prejudice. 

Erroneous  conclusions  have  frequently  been  drawn  by  not  attending 
carefully  to  terms  which  in  the  lapse  of  time  often  change  their  signifi- 
cance. In  the  "  Northumberland  Household  Book  "  almost  every  spe- 
cies of  vehicle  is  called  a  "  caiTiage,"  with  the  exception  of  the  earl's 
chariot,  and  this  was  not  employed  to  carry  persons,  but  certain  parts 
of  "the  chapell  stuff"  and  "wardrobe  stuff."  From  this  application 
of  the  word  "chariot,"  it  is  evident,  as  Bishop  Percy  observes,  "that 
it  bore  no  resemblance  to  the  modern  carriage  of  that  name,  nor  was 
it  intended  for  the  same  use,  but  was  simply  a  large  wagon  drawn  by 
six  horses,  called  on  that  account  '  large  trotting  horses.'  The  chariot- 
men,  or  wagoners,  who  accompanied  it,  had  a  nag  or  smaller  horse 
allowed  them  to  ride  by  its  side."  Markland  says  that  "Dr.  Percy's 
statement  is  strengthened  by  a  document  which  Mr.  Ellis  pointed  out 
to  him  amongst  the  Cottonian  Charters  (XI,  71),  whereby  Anne,  the 
queen  of  Richard  II  (1377-1400),  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  that 
king's  reign,  granted  an  annual  stipend  of  forty  shillings  during  her 
life  to  Eobert  Westende,  ^pourvoir  de  noz  charriette.^ "  If  these  car- 
riages were  to  be  provided  yearly  and  in  numbers,  it  seems  obvious 
that  they  must  have  been  required  for  the  conveyance  of  other  things 
than  of  persons.  1 

Covered  chariots,  with  ladies  therein,  followed  the  litter  of  Kathe- 
rine  on  her  coronation  with  Henry  YIII,  and  likewise  Anne  Boleyn 
when  she  rode  through  London.  The  "  bloody  "  Queen  Mary  went  in 
state  to  Westminster  in  1553,  "sitting  in  a  chariot  of  cloth  of  tissue,^ 

ten  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  that  among  other  mod- 
erate stipulations,  that  lady  requests  two  coaches  for  her  own  use,  and  a  third  for  her 
women,  and  also  "  att  any  tyme  when  1  travayle,  I  will  be  allowed  not  only  carroaches, 
and  spare  horses  for  me  and  my  women,  but  will  have  such  carnjadrjes  as  shall  be 
fitting  for  me,  all  orderly."  Markland,  in  the  Archceologia  (Vol.  XX,  p.  446),  says, 
"The  latter  were  for  conveying  her  own  wardrobe  and  that  of  her  women,  and  that 
the  words  soon  became  confounded,  and  coach,  with  occasional  exceptions,  was  the 
word  generally  used."  Dr.  Baillie,  in  his  Wall-flower,  written  in  Newgate  (1659),  uses 
the  word  carroach  for  coach. 

'  See  a  paper  in  The  Archceologia,  Vol.  XX,  pp.  449,  450. 

"  Froissart,  in  relating  the  return  of  the  English  from  an  incursion  into  Scotland 


264  ENGLISH   WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 

drawn  with  six  horses."  i  Sir  Edward  Hastings  immediately  after- 
wards leading  her  horse  in  his  hand,  and  then  followed  another  chariot 
with  cloth  of  silver  and  six  horses,  containing  Elizabeth  and  Anne  of 
Cleves.  Even  Queen  Elizabeth  on  her  coronation  rode  to  Westminster 
in  a  chariot.  Harrison,  in  mentioning  the  vehicles  in  use  during  the 
earlier  years  (1564)  of  this  queen's  reign,  calls  them  cartes,  as  expres- 
sive of  their  ill  construction.  In  his  "Description  of  Britain,"  prefixed 
to  Hollingshed's  Chronicle,  he  says,  "It  is  to  be  noted  that  our  princes 
and  nobility  have  their  carriages  commonlie  made  of  cartes,  whereby 
it  Cometh  to  passe,  that  when  the  Queen's  Majestie  doth  remoite 
[remove]  from  anie  one  place  to  another,  there  are  usuallie  four  hun- 
dred carewares  which  amount  to  the  somme  of  two  thousand  four  hun- 
dred horses,  appointed  out  of  the  countie  adjoining,  Avhereby  her 
carriage  is  conveied  safelie  unto  the  appointed  place." 

On  the  authority  of  Stow,  it  is  generally  believed  that  coaches  were 
first  introduced  into  England  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  This  is 
doubtful.  In  an  old  ballad  (temp.  Edward  I,  1272-1307)  entitled  "A 
Warning  Piece  to  England  against  Pride  and  Wickedness,  being  the 
fall  of  Queen  Eleanor,^  wife  to  Edward  First,  king  of  England,  who  for 
her  pride,  by  God's  Judgments,  sunk  into  the  ground  at  Charing-cross, 
and  rose  at  Queenshithe,"  it  is  said, — 

"  She  was  the  first  that  did  invent, 
In  coaches  brave  to  ride  ; 
She  was  the  first  that  brought  this  land 
To  deadly  sin  and  pride." 


under  Edward  III  (1327),  says,  "En  celle  cite  (Diirennes)  trouvereut  ils  leurs  c/jar- 
rettes  et  tout  leur  charroy,  qu'ils  avoient  laisse  xxxij  jours  an  devant,  en  uu  bois,  a 
minuict  si  comme  11  est  racompte  cydessus  :  et  les  avoieat  burrjeois  de  durennes  trou- 
vez  et  amenez  an  leur  ville,  a  leurs  ceusts  et  fait  mettre  en  vuides  graches,  chacune 
charrette  a  son  pe  noncel,  pour  les  recognoistre.  Si  furent  moult  joveux  les  seigneurs, 
quand  lis  curent  trouve  leur  charroy."  —  Eroissart's  Chronicles,  Paris,  1574,  Tom.  I, 
ch.  19. 

'  D'Avenant's  Works,  fol.  1673,  p.  351,  etc. 

^  Queen  Eleanor  died  Nov.  28,  1291,  at  Ilareby,  in  Lincolnshire.  Her  remains  Avere 
carried  in  profuse  state  to  London,  and  deposited  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where  a 
monument  is  erected  to  her  memory.  On  each  spot  where  the  body  rested  on  its  way, 
the  king  afterwards  caused  crosses  to  be  erected.  They  were  known  as  Lincoln, 
Grantham,  Stopford,  Geddingtou,  Northampton,  Thorny-Stratford,  Waltham,  Totten- 
ham, and  Charing  Crosses,  tlie  last  of  which  stands,  on  a  modern  pedestal,  in  the 
court-yard  of  the  Charing  Cross  railway  station  in  London. 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH'S   ENGLISH   COACH. 


265 


Two  years  before  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  (in  1556),  '%Sir  T. 
Ho  by  offered  the  use  of  his  coach  to  Lady  Cecil."  Mr.  Douce  observes 
that  ''although  this  quotation  from  the  'Burleigh  Papers'  (III,  No.  53) 
presents  probably  the  earliest  specific  date  of  the  use  of  coaches  in 
Eni>;land,  we  must  infer  that  they  were  known  before,  though  probably 
not  long  before.  Bishop  Kennet,  in  a  note  that  I  found  among  his 
papers,  mentions  that  J.  Chamberlayne,  Esq.,  of  Petty,  France,  has  a 
picture  of  his  grandfather,  on  which  is  this  inscription,  '  Sir  Thomas 
Chamberlayne,  of  Prestbury,  in  Gloucestershire,  Ambass*"-  from  Eng- 
land to  Charles  V,  Philip  II,  and  to  the  King  of  Sweden,  in  Flanders. 
He  married  a  lady  of  the  house  of  Nassau,  and  from  thence  also  he 
brought  the  first  coaches  and  the  first  watches  that  were  ever  seen  in 
England.'  He  was  born  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV,  and  died  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  This  curious  inscription,  therefore,  leaves 
the  exact  time  of  the  introduction  of  coaches  into  England  in  a  state 
of  uncertainty."  ' 

We  now  introduce  Stow's  record.  Under  date  of  1555,  Stow  says, 
"  This  yeare  Walter  Rippon  made  a  coche  for  the  Earle  of  Rutland, 
which  was  the  first  coche  that  ever  was  made  in  England."  So  it 
appears,  contrary  to  the  general  belief.  Queen  Elizabeth  did  not  get 
the  first  coadi  made  in  England,  "  since,  to  wit  in  anno  1564   [nine 


Qdeen   Elizabeth's    Coach,   Rippon,  Maker. 

years  later] ,  the  said  Walter  Rippon  made  the  first  hollow  turning 
coche  for  her  Majesty,  being  then  her  servant."  The  above  engraving 
is  supposed  to  represent  the  first  coach  owned  by  the  queen,  William 

'  Archceologla,  Vol.  XX,  p.  493,  note. 


266 


ENGLISH  WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


Boonen  being  coachman ;  for  previous  to  this  it  is  said  "  that  she  was 
accustomed  to  ride  on  horseback  behind  her  Lord  Chamberlain  on  all 
state  occasions,  Her  Majesty's  attendants  being  likewise  provided  with 
horses."  The  only  objection  we  have  found  to  this  supposition  is  the 
statement  that  when  Queen  Elizabeth  visited  Warwick  in  1572,  the 
bailiff  is  said  to  have  "  approached  nere  the  coche  or  chariot  wherein 
her  Majesty  sat,"  and  the  queen  "  caused  every  part  and  side  to  be 
opened,  that  her  subjects  present  might  behold  her  which  most  gladly 
they  desired."  ^  On  looking  at  this  coach  it  is  quite  natural  to  con- 
clude that  it  was  already  enough  open,  unless  the  sides  were  supplied 
with  curtains,  which  most  likely  was  the  case.  Among  the  "Two 
Thousand  Wonderful  Things,"  by  Edmund  F.  King,  is  shown  a  draw- 
ing which  he  says  "  is  taken  from  a  very  old  print,  representing  the 
state  procession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  on  her  way  to  open  Parliament, 
on  April  2,  1571."  This  was  the  first  occasion  on  which  a  state  coach 
had  ever  been  used  by  a  sovereign  of  England,  and  it  was  the  only 
vehicle  in  the  procession.  He  tells  us  that  William  Boonen  was  still 
the  coachman  at  this  time. 

Later,  in  1582,  the  English  ambassador  to  the  French  court  writes 
to  Elizabeth,  saying,  "The  French  King  hath  commanded  to  be  made 
for  your  Majesty  an  exceeding  marvelous  princely  coche,  and  to  be 


Queen  Elizabeth's  French  Coach. 

provided  foure  of  the  fairest  moiles  which  are  to  be  had,  for  to  carry 
your  Hio-hness's  litter.  The  king  hath  been  moved  to  shew  himself  in 
this  sort,  grateful  to  your  Majesty  on  receiving  those  dogs  and  other 


Hollinshed's  Chronicle,  IV,  p.  6. 


COST  OF  AN  ENGLISH  COACH. 


267 


singularities  you  were  lately  pleased  to  send  unto  him  for  his  falconer."  i 
In  the  same  year,  Hoefnagel's  print,  from  which  these  two  coaches 
were  taken,  was  published,  a  copy  of  which  is  preserved  at  Nonsuch 
Palace.  A  reduced  copy  is  annexed.  It  is 
evident  that  Hoefnagel,  in  this  print,  in- 
tended to  represent  both  the  English  and 
French  coaches  then  in  possession  of  the 
queen,  there  being  no  proof  of  her  having 
any  other  up  to  this  time,  unless  we  admit 
that  she  received  one  from  Holland  with 
Boonen,  which  is  extremely  doubtful. 

Soon  after  our  return  from  abroad  in 
1873,  we  sent  a  communication  to  "The 
Antiquary,"  then  published  in  London, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  ventilate  this 
whole  subject.  To  this  several  responses 
were  made,  some  of  them  by  persons  known 
as  prominent  writers,  without  furnishing 
anything  new.  On  reflection,  we  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  English  of  the 
present  day  have  but  very  foggy  notions 
regarding  this  history  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
coach,  which  we  trust  will  be  dispelled  by 
our  research. 

The  following,  from  the  Household  Book 
of  the  Kyston  family,  is  interesting  as  giving 
the  cost  of  a  coach  during  the  reign  of  Eliz- 
abeth, in  1572.  It  reads  thus:  "For  my 
m'''^-  Coche,  with  all  the  furniture  thereto 
belonging  except  horses  —  xxxiiij  li.  xiiij  s. 
For  j^  painting  of  my  m'-  and  my  m""®^-  armes 
upon  the  coche  —  ij  s.  vj  d.  For  y®  coche 
horses  bought  of  Mr.  Paxton  —  xj  li.  xxiis.  iiiJ." 

Among  the  inventory  of  goods  left  after  the  death  of  Archbishop 
Parker,  who  died  in  1577,  his  executors  enumerate  two  coaches,  "one 
covered  with  lether,  and  furniture  for  ij  horses  to  the  same  ;  the  other 


Strypc's  Annals  (2d  editiou),  Vol.  Ill,  p.  73. 


268  ENGLISH    WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

vncovered,  with  like  furniture,"  from  which  it  would  seem  that  the 
more  able  were  beginning  to  imitate  the  queen  in  this  particular. 
Still,  as  an  old  chronicler  informs  us,  "  Coaches  being  yet  uncommon, 
and  hired  coaches  not  at  all  in  use,  those  that  were  too  proud  or  idle 
to  walk,  went  .to  the  theaters  on  horseback,"  ^  the  women  only  riding 
in  the  coaches,  according  to  Aubrey.  This  writer  assures  us  that  in 
Sir  Philip  Sidney's  time  (he  will  be  remembered  as  one  of  Elizabeth's 
favorites) ,  so  famous  for  men-at-arms,  it  was  then  held  to  be  as  great 
a  disgrace  for  a  young  gentleman  to  be  seen  riding  in  the  street  in  a 
coach,  as  it  would  now  for  such  a  one  to  be  seen  in  the  street  in  a 
petticoat  and  waistcoat,  so  much  is  the  fashion  of  the  times  altered. 
But  says  another,  "After  a  while  divers  great  ladies,  with  a  great  jeal- 
ousie  of  the  Queen's  displeasure,  made  them  coaches  and  rid  in  them, 
up  and  downe  the  countries,  to  the  great  admiration  of  the  beholders ; 
but  then,  by  little  and  little,  they  grew  usual  among  the  nobilitie,  and 
others  of  sort,  and  within  twentie  yeares  became  a  great  trade  of  coach- 
making." 

*  "When  Shakespeare  lived  in  London  to  escape  his  debtors,  he  held  the  horses  of 
such  as  had  no  servants,  when  they  came  out  of  the  theater  at  the  close  of  a  perform- 
ance. In  time,  v^^hen  business  increased  (and  he  could  hold  only  one  at  a  time),  ho 
hired  boys  to  assist  him.  These,  Vi'hen  Shakespeare's  name  was  called,  stepped  for- 
ward with  no  little  pride,  saying,  "  I  am  Shakespeare's  boy,  sir." 

A  fcAV  years  previous  to  this  {circa  151:4),  the  celebrated  Tobias  Hobson  was  born, 
dying  in  1630.  In  No.  509  of  The  Spectator  we  are  informed  that  he  was  the  first  man 
in  England  who  let  out  hackney  horses;  that  "he  lived  in  Cambridge,  and  observing 
that  the  scholars  rid  hard,  his  manner  was  to  keep  a  large  stable  of  horses,  with 
boots,  bridles,  and  whips,  to  furnish  the  gentlemen  at  once,  without  going  from  col- 
lege to  college  to  borrow,  as  they  have  done  since  the  death  of  this  worthy  man.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Hobson  kept  a  stable  of  forty  good  cattle,  always  ready  and  fit  for  traveling ;  but 
when  a  man  came  for  a  horse,  he  was  led  into  the  stable,  where  there  was  great  choice ; 
but  he  obliged  him  to  take  the  horse  which  stood  next  to  the  stable-door,  so  that  every 
customer  was  alike  well  served  according  to  his  chance,  and  every  horse  ridden  with 
the  same  justice."  From  this  comes  the  proverb,  "Hobson's  choice,"  i.  e.,  no  choice  at 
all.  Milton,  knowing  him  personally,  wrote  two  epitaphs  to  his  memory.  One  of  them 
runs  thus :  — 

"  Here  lies  old  Hobson ;  death  has  broke  his  girt : 

And  here,  alas !  hath  lain  him  in  the  dirt ; 

Or  else,  the  ways  being  foul,  twenty  to  one 

He's  here  stuck  in  a  slough  and  overthrown. 

'Twas  such  a  shifter,  that  if  truth  were  known, 

Death  was  half  glad  when  he  had  got  him  down ; 

For  he  had,  any  time  this  ten  years  full, 

Dodged  with  him  betwixt  Cambridge  and  the  Bull." 


PATEONS   OF  COACHES  HATIBIZED.  2G9 

There  was  one  man,  however,  whose  courage  was  undaunted. 
Smiles  informs  us  that  "  that  valyant  knight,  Sir  Henry  Sidney,  on  a 
certain  day  in  1588,  entered  Shrewsbury  in  his  wagon,  with  his  trum- 
peter blowynge,  very  joyful  to  behold."  This  indiscretion  on  the  part 
of  the  knight,  and  the  increasing  use  of  coaches,  seem  to  have  awak- 
ened censure  in  the  writers  of  the  day.  In  a  volume  entitled  "  Pleas- 
ant Quippes  for  upstart  new-fangled  Gentlewomen,"  by  some  attributed 
to  Master  Stephen  Gosson,  by  others  to  Nicholas  Breton,  published  in 
1595,  the  writer  thus  takes  hold  of  those  who  patronize  the  coaches  :  — 

"  To  carry  all  this  pelfe  and  trash, 
Because  their  bodies  are  unfit, 
Our  wantons  now  in  coaches  dash 

From  house  to  house,  from  street  to  street. 
Were  they  of  state,  or  were  they  lame, 
To  ride  in  coach  they  need  not  shame." 

Even  the  good  Bishop  Hall  must  have  a  fling  at  them  in  his  "Satires," 
published  in  1597,  stigmatizing  the  use  of  coaches  as  "sin-gentility," 
and  dealing  out  to  the  "groome"  a  blow  at  the  same  time.     He  thus 

inquires :  — 

"  Is 't  not  a  shame  to  see  each  groome 
Sit  perched  in  an  idle  chariot  roome, 
That  were  not  meete  some  panel  to  bestride, 
Sursingled  to  a  galled  hackney's  hide  ?  "  ' 

But  time,  which  is  said  to  work  wonders,  was  slowly  but  surely 
working  in  favor  of  the  coaches.  "  They  of  state  "  were  lending  coun- 
tenance to  the  "sin-gentility,"  as  the  bishop  termed  the  use  of  coaches. 
Four  coaches  accompanied  an  embassy  to  Morocco,  through  the  city 
of  London,  in  1600,  and  an  embassy  to  Eussia  in  the  same  year  was 
attended  by  eight.  Three  years  later  the  members  of  a  French  mis- 
sion of  congratulation  on  the  ascension  of  James  I  all  rode  in  coaches, 
to  the  number  of  thirty,  from  the  Tower  Wharf  to  the  ambassador's 

*  Spenser,  in  the  second  portion  of  the  Faerie  Qiieene,  published  about  this  time, 
thus  alludes  to  coaches,  chariots,  etc. :  — 

"  Tho'  up  him  taking  in  their  tender  hands, 
They  easely  unto  her  charett  beare ; 
Her  teame  at  her  commaundement  quiet  stands, 
"Whiles  they  the  corse  into  her  wagon  reare. 
And  strowe  with  flowers  the  lamentable  beare ; 
Then  all  the  rest  into  their  coches  dim,"  etc. 

B.  Ill,  Canto  IV,  v.  42. 


270  ENGLISH   WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 

dwelling  in  Barbican,  and  returned  to  their  lodgings  in  Bishopsgate 
Street  in  the  evening,  to  the  admiration  of  the  citizens.  Such  was 
the  increasing  popularity  that  on  the  7th  of  November,  1601,  "A  Bill 
to  restrain  the  excessive  use  of  Coaches  within  this  realm  of  England," 
was  read,  secundd  vice,  in  Parliament,  but  rejected.  "Hereupon," 
says  the  historian,  "  motion  was  made  by  the  Lord  Keeper,  that  foras- 
much as  the  said  Bill  did  in  some  sort  concern  the  maintenance  of 
horses  within  this  realm,  consideration  might  be  had  of  the  statutes 
heretofore  made  and  ordained  touching  the  breed  and  maintenance  of 
horses.^  And  that  Mr.  Attorney-generall  should  peruse  and  consider 
of  the  said  Statutes,  and  of  some  fit  Bill  to  be  drawn  and  prefer'd  to 
the  house  touching  the  same,  and  conceiving  the  use  of  coaches;  and 
that  he  should  acquaint  therewith  the  committees  appointed  for  the 
Bill  before  mentioned,  for  assurance  of  lands ;  ^  which  motion  was 
opposed  by  the  House."  ^ 

Macpherson^  informs  us  that  in  four  years  thereafter  (in  1605)  "the 
coaches  began  to  be  in  pretty  general  use  among  the  nobility  and 
gentry  in  London,  and  the  watermen  were  not  tardy  in  exclaiming 
against  a  fashion  so  prejudicial  to  their  calling."  One  "sculler  [on  the 
Thames]  told  him  he  was  now  out  of  cash ;  it  was  a  hard  time ;  he 
doubts  there  is  some  secret  bridge  made  to  hell,  and  that  they  steal 
thither  in  coaches,  for  any  Justice's  wife  and  the  wife  of  every  Cittizin 
must  be  jolted  now."^  "Coaches  and  sedans,"  says  another  waterman, 
"they  deserve  bothe  to  be  throwne  into  the  Theames,  and  but  for  stop- 
ping the  channel,  I  would  they  were ;  for  I  am  sure  where  I  was  wont 
to  have  eio;ht  or  tenne  fares  in  a  morning,  I  now  scarce  o^et  two  in  a 
whole  day.  Our  wives  and  children  at  home  are  readie  to  pine,  and 
some  of  us  are  faine  for  meanes  to  take  other  professions  upon  us." 

But  the  coaches  still  increased  in  spite  of  opposition,  until,  as  one 
writer  informs  us,  "  they  pestered  the  streets,  so  greatly  did  they  at 
this  time  breed  and  multiply."  Indeed,  it  was  charged  that  the  Gun- 
powder treason  and  coaches  were  both  hatched  from  the  same  nest. 

'  27  Henry  VIII,  cli.  6 ;  32  Henry  VIII,  ch.  13 ;  and  8  Elizabeth,  ch.  8. 

-  See  44  Elizabeth,  ch.  1. 

'  D'Ewe's  Journals  of  all  the  Parliaments,  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  (edit. 
1682),  p.  602. 

■•  Annals  of  Commerce,  Vol.  II,  p.  167. 

^  Se3  A  Knight's  Conjoring  clone  in  Earnest,  discovered  in  Jest,  by  Thomas  Dckker, 
London,  1607. 


EABLY  TBAVEL  BY  STAGE-COACH. 


271 


Those  who  had  been  accustomed  to  trudge  through  miry  streets  and 
on  horseback,  and  now  had  the  means,  were  not  long  in  appropriating 
the  new  luxury  to  their  use.  If  they  did  not  order  a  coach  made,  yet 
they  did  not  fail  to  hire  one  when  fancy  or  convenience  required  it. 
In  an  old  poem  entitled  "Christmas  Lamentations,"  published  about 
this  time,  such  was  the  rage  for  this  species  of  amusement,  that  we 

are  told, 

"  Madam,  forsooth,  in  her  coach  must  wheele, 
Althouiih  she  wear  her  hose  out  at  the  heele!  " 


About  the  year  1610,  a  person  in  Scotland,  said  to  have  been  a 
native  of  Stalsund  in  Pomerania,  offered  to  contract  for  a  certain 
number  of  coaches  and  wagons,  with  horses  to  draw  and  servants  to 
attend  them.  Accordingly,  a  royal  patent  was  granted  him  conferring 
an  exclusive  privilege  for  fifteen  years  of  running  them  between  Edin- 
burgh and  Leith.  This  is  probably  the  earliest  instance  where  a 
vehicle  entitled  to  the  name  of  a  stage-coach  was  ever  run  in  the 
United  Kingdom. 

The  next  illustration  is  taken  from  Visscher's  "Views  in  London," 
published  at  Antwerp  in  1616.  This  engraving  is  particularly  inter- 
esting, affording,  as  it  does, 
the  earliest  representation 
of  a  baggage-rack  behind  a 
coach,  although  the  design 
looks  more  like  an  omnibus 
than  its  "  older  brother."  It 
is  likewise  remarkable  as  be- 
ing drawn  by  only  one  horse, 
and  that  besides  being  bur- 
dened with  the  driver  on  his 
back !  But  there  were  no 
Berghs  in  those  days. 

In  "Fyne  Morrison's  Itinerary,  or  Ten  Years'  Travel  throughout 
Great  Britain  and  other  Parts  of  Europe,"  published  in  1617,  we  have 
a  pen-picture  which  in  this  connection  is  of  some  interest.  He  tells 
us  that  "in  England  towards  the  south,  and  in  the  west  parts,  and 
from  London  to  Berwick  upon  the  confines  of  Scotland,  post-horses 
are  established  at  every  ten  miles  or  thereabout,  on  which  travelers 
ride  a  false  gallop  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour  sometimes,  but  that 


English  Coach  of1616. 


272  ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

makes  their  hire  the  greater.  With  a  commission  from  the  chief 
postmaster  or  chief  lords  of  the  council  (given  either  on  public  busi- 
ness or  the  pretense  of  it),  a  passenger  pays  twopence-halfpenny 
a  mile  for  his  horse,  and  the  same  for  his  guide's  horse ;  but  if 
several  persons  travel  in  company,  one  guide  will  do  for  the  whole. 
Other  persons,  who  have  no  such  commission,  must  pay  threepence 
a  mile. 

"  This  extraordinary  charge  for  horse-hire  is  well  recompensed  by 
the  greater  speed  of  the  journey,  by  which  the  increased  expense  of 
inns  in  slow  traveling  is  avoided.  All  the  difficulty  is  in  bearing  the 
great  fatigue.  The  traveler  is  at  no  expense  for  the  food  of  these 
horses ;  but  at  the  end  of  ten  miles,  the  boy  who  takes  them  back 
expects  a  few  pence  in  the  way  of  a  gift.  For  the  most  part.  English- 
men, especially  in  long  journeys,  ride  their  own  horses.  But  if  any 
person  wishes  to  hire  a  horse  at  London,  he  pays  two  shillings  the 
first  day,  and  twelve  or  perhaps  eighteen  pence  a  day  afterward,  till 
the  horse  is  brought  back  to  the  owner.  In  other  parts  of  England  a 
man  may  hire  a  horse  for  twelve  pence  a  day,  finding  him  meat ;  and 
if  the  journey  be  long,  he  may  hire  him  at  a  convenient  rate  for  a 
month  or  two.  Likewise  carriers  let  horses  from  city  to  city,  bargain- 
ing that  the  passengers  must  put  up  at  their  inns,  that  they  may  look 
to  the  feeding  of  their  horses.  They  will  thus  lend  a  horse  for  a  five 
or  six  days'  journey,  and  find  the  animal  meat  themselves,  for  about 
twenty  shillings.  Lastly,  these  carriers  have  long,  covered  wagons, 
in  which  they  carry  passengers  from  city  to  city;  but  this  kind  of 
journeying  is  very  tedious,  for  they  take  wagon  very  early,  and  come 
very  late  to  their  inns,  so  that  none  but  women  and  people  of  inferior 
condition  travel  in  this  sort.  Coaches  are  not  to  be  hired  anywhere 
but  at  London ;  and  although  England  is  for  the  most  part  plain,  or 
consisting  of  little  pleasant  hills,  yet  the  ways  far  from  London  are  so 
dirty  that  hired  coachmen  do  not  ordinarily  take  any  long  journeys. 
For  a  day's  journey,  a  coach  with  two  horses  is  let  for  about  ten  shil- 
lings a  day,  or  some  fifteen  shillings  a  day  for  three  horses,' the  coach- 
man finding  the  horses'  meat ;  if  the  journey  be  short,  about  eight 
shillings  will  suffice,  l)ut  then  the  passengers  pay  for  the  meat  of  the 
horse.  One  horse's  meat  will  cost  twelve  pence  or  eighteen  pence  for 
one  night,  for  hay,  oats,  and  straw ;  but  in  summer  they  are  put  to 
grass  at  three  pence  each,  although  those  who  ride  long  journeys  keep 


TAYLOE'S   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


273 


them  in  the  stable  on  hard  moat,  as  in  winter,  or  else  give  them  a  feed 
of  oats  when  they  come  from  grass  in  the  morning." 

About  the  year  1619,  a  royal  favorite,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
ambitious  for  display,  carried  his  pomp  so  far  as  to  drive  six  iiorscs 
before  his  coach.  One  author  says  this  action  was  "  wondered  at  then 
as  a  great  novelty,  and  imputed  to  him  as  a  masterly  pride."  ^  From 
this  circumstance  arose  the  phrase,  "A  coach  and  six." 

And  now  comes  the  storm  against  the  "  increase  of  coaches  "  from 
the  watermen  of  the  Thames,  who,  like  the  shrine-makers  of  Ephesus 
in  former  days,  imagined  their  craft  endangered.  John  Taylor,  known 
as  the  "  water 
poet,"  sympa- 
thizing with 
them,  in  conse- 
quence of  his 
employment  on 
the  river  in  his 
earlier  life,  took 
up  their  cause, 
and  i)ut  forth  a 
curious  pamph- 
let derogatory 
to  coaches  and 
in  favor  of 
carts.2  This 
was  accompa- 
nied by  a  sin- 
gular engraving,  which  is  here  reproduced  from  photograph  of  the 
original,  slightly  reduced  in  size.  Here  the  world  is  represented  as 
being  drawn  in  a  fancifully  designed  chariot  by  Satan  and  an  aban- 
doned woman.     The  fan  in  the  woman's  hand,   and  the  protruding 


Taylor's   World   on    Wheels. 


*  Wilson's  Life  of  Jung  James,  fol.,  p.  130,  London,  1653. 

2  The  copy  in  the  Library  of  the  British  Museum  is  entitled  The  World  runnes  on 
Wheeles;  or,  Oddes  betwixt  Carts  and  Coaches.  London,  printed  by  E.  A.  for  Henry 
Gosson,  1G23.  This  is  dedicated  "To  the  noble  Company  of  Cordwainers,  the  wor- 
shipfull  Company  of  Sadlers  and  Woodmongers ;  To  the  worthy,  honest,  and  lawdable 
Company  of  Water-men,  And  to  the  sacred  society  of  Hackncy-mcn,  And  finally  to  as 
many  as  are  grieued  and  vnjustly  impouerished  and  molested  with  '  The  Worlds  Eun- 
ning  on  Wheeles.'"  The  work  consists  of  about  thirty  pages  octavo. 
18 


274  ENGLISH  WOULD   ON   WHEELS. 

tongue  of  the  archfiend  indicate  that  they  have  a  laborious  task  to 
perform.  The  following  doggerel  is  given  as  the  meaning  of  the 
"  Embleme  "  by  Taylor :  — 

"  The  Dieull,  the  Fleshy  the  World  dothe  Man  oppose, 
And  are  his  mighty  and  his  mortall  foes: 
Tiie  Deuill  and  the  Whorish  Flesh  drawes  still, 
The  World  on  Wheeles  runnes  after  with  good  will, 
For  that  which  wee  the  World  may  justly  call 
(I  mean  the  lower  Globe  Terrestriall), 
Is  (as  the  Dieull^  and  a  whore  doth  please) 
Drawne  here  and  there,  and  euerywhere  with  ease. 
Those  that  their  Liues  to  vertue  heere  doe  frame. 
Are  in  the  Worlds  but  yet  not  of  the  same. 
Some  such  there  are,  whom  neither  Flesh  nor  D'mell 
Can  wilfully  drawe  on  to  any  euill: 
But  for  the  World,  as  'tis  the  World,  you  see 
It  runnes  on  Wheeles,  and  who  the  Palfreys  bee. 
Which  Embleme  to  the  Keader  doth  display 
The  Diuell  and  the  Flesh  ronues  swift  away. 
The  Chayn'd  ensnared  World  doth  follow  fast. 
Till  All  into  Perdition's  pit  be  cast. 
The  Picture  topsie-turuie  stands  kewwaw: 
The  World  turn'd  vpside  downe,  as  all  men  know." 

Taylor's  pamphlet  is  really  an  invective  against  coaches,  which  he 
stigmatizes  as  "  upstart  four-wheeled  tortoises,"  far  beneath  the  cart  in 
dignity  and  usefulness.  This  he  endeavors  to  show  after  the  following 
manner:  "As  Man  is  the  most  noblest  of  all  Creatures,  and  all  foure- 
footed  Beasts  are  ordayned  for  his  vse  and  seruice ;  so  a  Cart  is  the 
Embleme  of  a  Man,  and  a  Coach  is  the  Figure  of  a  Beast;  for  as  man 
hath  two  legges,  a  Gart  hath  two  wheeles ;  the  Coach  being  (in  the 
like  sense)  the  true  resemblance  of  a  Beast,  by  which  is  Parabolically 
demonstrated  vnto  vs,  that  as  much  as  Men  are  superior  to  Beasts,  so 
much  are  honest  and  needful  Carts  more  nobly  to  be  regarded  and 
esteemed  aboue  needlesse,  vpstart,  fantasticall,  and  Time-troubling 
Coaches. 

"And  as  necessities  and  things,  whose  commodious  vses  cannot  be 
Avanted  [dispensed  with] ,  are  to  be  respected  before  Toyes  and  trifles 
(whose  beginning  is  Folly,  continuance  Pride,  and  whose  end  is  Ruine)  ; 
I  say  as  necessity  is  to  be  preferred  before  superfluity,  so  is  the  Cart 
l)efore  the  Coach;  For  Stones,  Timber,  Come,  Wine,  Beere,  or  any- 
thing that  wants  life,   there  is  a  necessity  they  should  be  carried, 


CABT  HUMILITY  AND   COACH  PRIDE.  275 

because  they  are  dead  things  and  cannot  goe  on  foot,  which  necessity 
the  honest  Oart  doth  supply.  But  the  Coach,  like  a  superflous 
Bable  [bauble?]  or  an  uncharitable  Mizer,  doth  sildome  or  neuer 
carry  or  help  any  dead  or  helplesse  thing;  but  on  the  contrary,  it 
helps  those  that  can  help  themselues  (like  Scoggin  when  he  greazed 
the  fat  8oiv  on  the  Butt-end) ,  and  carries  men  and  women,  who  are 
able  to  goe  or  run.  Ergo,  the  Cart  is  necessary,  and  the  Coach  super- 
flous. 

''Besides,  I  am  uerily  perswaded  that  the  proudest  Coxcombe  that 
euer  was  iolted  in  a  Coach  will  not  be  so  impudent,  but  will  confesse 
that  humility  is  to  be  preferred  before  pride ;  which  being  granted, 
note  the  affability  and  lowlines  of  the  Cart,  and  the  pride  and  inso- 
lency  of  the  Coach ;  For  the  Carma,n  humbly  paces  it  on  foot,  as  his 
Beast  doth,  whilest  the  Coachman  is  mounted  (his  fellow-horses  and 
himself  being  all  in  a  liuery)  with  as  many  uarieties  of  Laces,  facings, 
Cloath  and  Colours  as  are  in  the  Rainebowe,  like  a  Motion  or  Pageant 
rides  in  state,  and  loades  the  poore  Beast,  which  the  Carman  doth 
not,  and  if  the  Carman's  horse  be  melancholly  or  dull  with  hard  and 
heauy  labour,  then  wiM  he  like  a  kinde  Piper  whistle  him  a  fit  of  mirth 
to  any  tune  from  aljoue  Eela  to  below  Gammoth,  of  which  generositie 
and  courtesie  your  Coachman  is  altogether  ignorant,  for  he  neuer 
whistles,  but  all  his  musicke  is  to  rajjpe  out  an  oath  or  blurt  out  a 
curse  against  his  Teeme. 

"  The  word  Carmen  (as  I  finde  it  in  the  Dictionarie)  doth  signifie 
a  Verse  or  a  Song,  and  betwixt  Carmen  and  Carmen  there  is  some 
good  correspondencie,  for  Versing,  Singing,  and  Whistling  are  all 
three  Musicall,  besides  the  Carthorse  is  a  more  learned  l^east  then  the 
Coachhorse,  for  scarce  any  Coachhorse  in  the  world  doth  know  any 
letter  in  the  Booke,  when  as  euery  Carthorse  doth  know  the  letter  G, 
uery  vnderstandiugly. 

"If  Adultery  or  Fornication  bee  committed  in  a  Coach,  it  may  be 
grauely  and  discreetly  punished  in  a  Cart,  for  as  by  this  meanes  the 
Coach  may  be  a  running  Bawdry-house  of  abhomi nation,  so  the  Cart 
may  (and  often  is)  the  sober,  modest,  and  ciuiil  pac'd  Instrument  of 
Ke formation  ;  so,  as  the  Coach  may  be  vice's  infection,  the  Cart  often 
is  vice's  correction." 

After  enumerating  the  great  usefulness  of  the  cart  in  England  under 
Danish  rule,  Taylor  entreats  the  reader  with  holy  horror  to  "  beware 


276  ENGLISH   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

of  a  Coach  as  you  would  doe  of  a  Tyger,  a  Wolfe,  or  a  Leuiathau :  I'le 
assure  you  it  eates  more  (though  it  drinkes  lesse)  then  the  Coachman 
and  his  whole  Teeme ;  it  hath  a  mouth  gaping  on  each  side  like  a 
monster  with  which  they  haue  swallowed  all  the  good  housekeeping  in 
England:  It  lately  (like  a  most  insatiable  deuouring  Beast)  did  eate 
vp  a  Knight,  a  neighbour  of  mine  in  the  Country  of  N.,  a  Wood  of 
aboue  400  Akers,  as  if  it  had  been  a  bunch  of  Radish ;  of  another  it 
deuoured  a  whole  Castle,  as  it  had  been  a  Marchpane ^  scarcely  allow- 
ing the  Knight  and  his  Lady  halfe  a  colde  shoulder  of  Mutton  to  their 
suppers  on  a  Thursday  night ;  out  of  which  reuersion  the  Coachman 
and  the  Footeman  could  picke  but  hungry  Vailes ;  in  another  place 
(passing  through  a  Parke)  it  could  not  be  content  to  eate  up  all  the 
Deere  and  other  grazing  Gattell,  but  it  bit  up  all  the  Oakes  that  stood 
bareheaded,  there  to  do  homage  to  their  Lord  and  Maister  euer  since 
the  conquest,  crushing  their  olde  sides  as  easily  as  one  of  our  fine 
Dames  (with  a  poysoned  breath)  will  snap  a  cinamon-stick ;  or  with 
as  much  facillity  as  a  Bawde  will  eate  a  Pippin  Tart,  or  swallow  a 
stewed  Pruine. 

"For  (what  call  you  the  Towne)  where  the  great  Oysters  come 
from?  There  it  hath  eaten  vp  a  Church,  Chauncell,  Steeple,  Bells  and 
all,  and  it  threatens  a  great  Common  that  lyes  neere,  which  in  diebus 
illis  [in  other  days]  hath  relieued  thousands  of  poore  people ;  nay,  so 
hungry  it  is,  that  it  will  scarcely  endure,  in  a  Gentleman's  house,  a 
poore  neighbour's  childe  so  much  as  to  turne  a  Spit ;  nor  a  Yeoman's 
Sonne  to  enter  the  house,  though  but  in  good  will  to  the  Chamber- 
maide,  who  anciently  from  16  to  36  was  wont  to  haue  his  breeding 
either  in  the  Buttry,  or  Cellar,  Stable,  or  Larder,  and  to  bid  good-man 
Hobs,  good-wife  Grub,  or  the  youth  of  the  parish  welcome  at  a  Christ- 
masse  time  ;  but  those  dales  are  gone,  and  their  fellowes  are  neuer  like 
to  bee  scene  about  any  of  our  top-gallant  houses.  There  was  a  Knight 
(an  acquaintance  of  mine)  whose  whole  meanes  in  the  world  was  but 
threescore  pounds  a  yeere,  and  aboue  20  of  the  same  went  for  his 
Wine's  Coach-hire;  now  (perhaps)  you  shall  haue  an  Irish  Footman 
with  a  Jacket  cudgel  I'd  do  wne  the  shoulders  and  skirts  with  yellow  or 
Orenge  tawny  Lace,  may  trot  from  London  3  or  4  score  miles  to  one 
of  these  decayed  Mansions,  when  the  simpring,  scornfull  Puffe,  the 
supposed  Mistresse  of  the  house  (with  a  mischiefe)  who  is  (indeed)  a 
kinde  of  creature  retired  for  a  while  into  the  Countrey  to  escape  the 


LEATHEB  MADE  COSTLY  BY  COACHES.  277 

whip  ill  the  Citie  ;  she  demauiicls  out  of  the  window  scarce  ready,  and 
dressing  herself  in  a  glasse  at  noone ;  Fellow  what  is  thine  Errand, 
hast  thou  letters  to  me  ?  And  if  it  be  about  dinner,  a  man  may  sooner 
blow  vp  the  gates  of  Bergen  ap  Zome  with  a  Charme  then  get  entrance 
within  the  bounds  of  their  Barr'd,  Bolted,  and  Barracadoed  Wicket : 
About  two  a  Clocke,  it  may  bee  after  walking  an  houre  or  twaine,  Sir 
Sellall  comes  downe,  vntrust  with  a  Pipe  of  Tobacco  in  his  fist  to 
knowe  your  businesse,  having  first  peeped  thorow  a  broken  pane  of 
Glasse,  to  see  whether  you  come  to  demand  any  money,  or  olde  debt, 
or  not,  when  after  a  few  hollow  dry  compliments  (without  drinke)  he 
turns  you  out  at  the  gate,  his  worshippe  returning  to  his  Stoue.  What 
Townes  are  layde  waste?  What  fields  lye  vntilled?  What  goodly 
houses  are  turn'd  to  the  habitations  of  Howlets,  Dawea,  and  Hobgob- 
lins ?  What  numbers  of  poore  are  encreased  ?  yea  examine  this  last 
yeere  but  the  Register  bookes  of  burialls,  of  our  greatest  Townes  and 
Parishes  of  the  land,  as  Winondham  in  Norfolke,  White  Choppell 
neere  London,  and  many  other,  and  see  how  many  haue  beene  buried 
weekely,  that  haue  meerely  perished  for  want  of  bread ;  whilst  Pride 
and  Luxurie  dam  vp  our  streetes,  Barracado  our  highwaies,  and  are 
ready  euen  to  drive  ouer  their  Graues,  whom  their  vnmerciful  Pride 
hath  famished. 

"  Whence  come  Leather  to  be  so  deare,  but  by  reason  (or  as  I  should 
say  against  reason)  of  the  multitude  of  Coaches  and  Carroches,  who 
consume  and  take  vp  the  best  Hides  that  can  be  <rotten  in  our  Kino-- 
dome,  insomuch  that  I  cannot  buy  a  payre  of  Bootes  for  myself  vnder 
an  Angell,  nor  my  Wife  a  payre  of  Shooes  (though  her  foote  be  vnder 
the  seauenteenes)  vnder  eight  groates  or  three  shillings,  by  which 
meanes  many  honest  Shoomakers  are  either  vndone  or  vndoing,  and 
infinite  numbers  of  poore  Christians  are  enforced  to  goe  barefooted  in 
the  colde  Winters,  till  with  uery  benummednesse  some  their  toes  and 
some  their  feete  are  rotred  off,  to  the  numberlesse  increases  of  crooked 
Cripples  and  wooden  legg'd  beggers,  of  which  sort  of  miserable  dis- 
membred  wretches  every  streete  is  plentifully  stored  with,  to  the 
scorne  of  other  Nations,  and  the  shame  and  obloquy  of  our  owne. 

"The  Saddlers  (being  an  ancient,  a  worthy,  and  a  vsefuU  Company) 
they  haue  almost  ouerthrowne  the  whole  Trade,  to  the  vndoing  of 
many  honest  families  ;  For  whereas  within  our  memories,  our  Nobility 
and  Gentry  would  ride  well  mounted  (and  sometimes  walke  on  foote) 


278  ENGLISH   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

gallantly  attended  Avitli  three  or  foure  score  braue  fellowes  in  blew 
coates,  which  was  a  glory  to  our  Nation,  and  gaue  more  content  to  the 
beholders,  then  forty  of  your  Leather  Tumbrels.  Then  men  preseru'd 
their  bodies  strong  and  able  by  walking,  riding,  and  other  manly  exei-- 
cises :  Then  Saddlers  were  a  good  Trade,  and  the  name  of  a  Coach 
was  Heathen-Greeke.  Who  euer  saw  (but  vpon  extraordinary  occas- 
sions)  Sir  Philip  Sidney^  Sir  Francis  Drake,  Sir  lohn  JVbrris,  Sir 
William  Winter,  Sir  Roger  Williams,  or  (whom  I  should  have  nam'd 
first)  the  famous  Lord  Gray,  and  Willoughby,  with  the  renowned 
George  Earle  of  Qumberland,  or  Robert  Earle  of  Essex :  These  sonnes 
of  Mars,  who  in  their  times  were  the  glorious  Brooches  of  our  Nation, 
and  admirable  terrour  to  our  Enemies  :  these  I  say  did  make  small 
vses  of  Goaches,  and  there  were  two  mayne  reasons  for  it,  the  one  was 
that  there  were  but  few  Coaches  in  most  of  their  times  ;  and  the  second 
reason  is,  they  were  deadly  foes  to  all  Sloath  and  effeminacie  :  The 
like  was  Sir  Francis  Vere,  with  thousands  others ;  but  what  should  I 
talke  further?  this  is  the  rattling,  rowling,  rumbling  age,  and  The 
World  runnes  on  Wheeles.  The  Hackney-men  who  were  wont  to  liaue 
furnished  Trauellers  in  all  places  Avith  fitting  and  seruiceable  horses 
for  any  journey  (by  the  multitude  of  Goaches)  are  vndone  by  the 
dozens,  and  the  whole  Common-wealth  most  abominably  laded,  that  in 
many  places  a  man  had  as  good  to  ride  vpon  a  woodden  post,  as  to 
poast  it  vpo  one  of  those  hunger-staru'd  hirelings :  which  enormity 
can  be  imputed  to  nothing  but  the  Coaches'  intrusion,  is  the  Hackney- 
man's  confusion. 

"  Nor  haue  we  poore  Water-men  the  least  cause  to  complaine  against 
this  infernall  swarme  of  Trade-spillers,  who  like  the  Grasshoppers  or 
Gaterpillars  of  Egipt  have  so  ouer-runne  the  land,  that  we  can  get  no 
liuing  vpon  the  water ;  for  I  dare  truely  afErme  that  euery  day  in  any 
Tearme  (especially  if  the  Court  be  at  Whitehall)  they  do  rob  vs  of 
our  linings,  and  carry  560  fares  daily  from  vs,  which  numbers  of  pas- 
sengers were  wont  to  supply  our  necessities,  and  enable  vs  sufiiciently 
with  meanes  to  doe  our  Prince  and  Country  seruice." 

Some  two  pages  are  here  omitted,  as  being  unfit  for  publication  in 
this  age.  Among  other  complaints,  Taylor  charges  that  the  courtesans 
of  London  had  transferred  their  patronage  from  the  watermen  to  the 
hackney-coaches,  by  reason  of  which  "the  Coachman  hath  gotten  all 
the  custome  from  the  Scullers'  pay  Mistris."     The  irate  waterman 


COACHES  DESTRUCTIVE   TO  ASH-TREES.  279 

continues  :  "A  Wheelright  or  a  maker  of  Carts,  is  an  ancient,  a  prof- 
itable, and  a  Trade  which  by  no  meanes  can  be  wanted ;  yet  so  poore 
it  is  that  scarce  the  best  among  them  can  hardly  euer  attaine  to  better 
then  a  calue  skin  sute,  or  a  piece  of  necke  beefe  &  carret-rootes  to 
dinner  on  a  Sunday ;  nor  scarcely  any  of  them  is  ever  mounted  to  any 
Office  aboue  the  degree  of  a  Scauenger,  or  a  Tything-man  at  the  most. 
On  the  contrary,  your  Coach-makers  trade  is  the  most  gainefuUest 
about  the  Towne,  they  are  apparelled  in  Sattens  and  Veluets,  arc 
Maister  of  their  Parish,  Vestry-men,  who  fare  like  the  Emperors 
Heliogabalus  or  Sardanapalus,  seldome  without  their  Mackeroones, 
Parmisants,  lellyes  and  Kickshawes  with  baked  Swannes,  Pasties  hote 
or  cold,  red  Deere  Pyes,  which  they  haue  from  their  Debtors  worships 
in  the  Countrey  :  neither  are  these  Coaches  only  thus  cumliersome  by 
their  Rumbling  and  Rutting,  as  they  are  by  their  standing  still,  and 
damming  vp  the  streetes  and  lanes,  as  the  Blaclce  Friers,  and  diuers 
other  places  can  witnesse,  and  against  Coach-makers  dores  the  streetes 
are  so  pestered  and  clogg'd  with  them :  that  neither  Man,  Horse  or 
Cart  can  passe  for  them :  in  so  much  as  my  Lord  Maior  is  highly  to 
be  commended  for  his  care  in  this  restraint,  sending  in  February  last 
many  of  them  to  the  Counter  for  their  carelessnesse  herein. 

"  They  [Coaches]  haue  beene  the  uniuersall  decay  of  almost  all  the 
best  Ash  Trees  in  the  Kingdome,  for  a  young  plant  can  no  sooner 
peepe  vp  to  any  perfection,  but  presently  it  is  felled  for  the  Coach ; 
Nor  a  young  Horse  bred  of  any  beauty  or  goodnesse  but  he  is  ordaind 
from  his  foaling  for  the  seruice  of  the  Coach ;  so  that  whereas  in 
former  ages,  both  in  peace  and  warres  we  might  compare  with  any 
Nation  in  the  world  for  the  multitude  and  goodnesse  of  our  Horses : 
wee  now  thinke  of  no  other  imployment  for  them,  then  to  draw  a 
Coach,  and  when  they  are  either  lamed  by  the  negligence  of  the  Coach- 
man, or  worne  out  after  many  yeares  with  trotting  to  Playes  and 
Bawdy  houses,  then  are  they  (like  old  maymed  souldiers)  after  their 
wounds  are  scarres,  preferred  to  Woodmongers  (where  they  are  well 
Billited)  or  to  Draymen,  where  they  turn  Tapsters,  and  draw  Beere 
by  whole  Barrels  and  Hogsheads  at  once;  and  there  they  weare  out 
the  Remainder  of  their  dales,  till  new  harneis  for  others  are  made  of 
their  olde  skinnes. 

"  The  last  Proclamations  concerning  the  Retiring  of  the  Gentry  out 
of  tlie  Citty  into  their  Countreycs,  although  my  selfe,  with  many  thou- 


280  ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

sands  more  were  much  impouerished  and  hindered  of  our  Liumgs  by 
their  departure ;  yet  on  the  other  side  how  it  cleered  the  streetes  of 
tiiese  way-stopping  Whirligigges  !  for  a  man  now  might  walke  without 
being  stand  vp  hoe,  by  a  fellowe  that  scarcely  can  eitlier  goe  or  stand 
himselfe.  Prince,  Nobilitie,  and  Gentlemen  of  worth,  OiEces  and 
Quality,  haue  herein  their  Priuiledge,  and  are  exempt,  may  ride  as 
their  occassions  or  pleasures  shal  inuite  them,  as  most  meete  they 
should ;  but  when  every  Gill  Turnetripe,  Mistris  Fumhins,  Madame 
Polecat,  and  my  Lady  Trash,  Froth  the  Tapster,  Bill  the  Taylor, 
Lauender  the  Broker,  Whiffe  the  Tobacco-seller,  with  their  companion 
Trugs,  must  be  Coach'd  to  S.  Albanes,  Burntwood,  Hockley  in  the 
Hole,  Croydon,  Windsor,  Vxbridge,  &  many  other  places,  like  wilde 
Haggards  prancing  vp  and  downe,  that  what  they  get  by  cheating, 
swearing  and  lying  at  home,  they  spend  in  Ryot,  Whoring  and  Drun- 
kennesse  abroade.  I  say  by  my  hallidome,  it  is  a  burning  shame  ;  I 
did  lately  write  a  pamphlet  called  a  Thiefe '  wherein  I  did  a  little  touch 
upon  this  point :  that  seeing  the  Heard  of  Hireling  Coaches  are  more 
than  the  Whirries  on  the  Thames,  and  that  they  make  Leather  so 
excessive  deere,  that  it  were  good  the  order  in  Bohemia  were  observed 
heare,  which  is,  that  every  hired  Coach  should  be  drawn  with  Ropes, 
and  that  all  their  Harnesse  should  be  Hemp  and  Cordage ;  Besides  if 
the  Couer  [top]  and  Bootes  of  them  were  of  good  Rosiud  or  pitched 
Canvis  it  would  bringe  downe  the  price  of  Leather,  and  by  that  meanes 
a  hired  Coach  would  be  knowne  from  a  Princes,  a  Noblemans,  Ladies, 
or  people  of  note,  account,  respect  and  quality. 

"  And  if  it  be  considred  in  the  right  Kue,  a  Coach  or  Carroach  are 
meere  Engines  of  Pride,  (which  no  man  can  denie  to  be  one  of  the 
seuen  deadly  sinnes)  for  two  Leash  of  Oyster  wiues  hired  a  Coach  on 
a  Thursday  after  Whitsontide,  to  carry  them  to  the  Greene  Goose 
Faire  at  Strafford  ihQ  Bowe,  and  as  they  were  hurried  betwixt  Algate 
and  Myle-end,  they  were  so  be-Madam'd,  be-Mistrist,  and  Ladifide  by 
the  Beggers,  that  the  foolish  women  began  to  swell  with  a  proud  sup- 
position or  Imaginary  greatnesse,  and  gaue  all  their  money  to  the 
mendicating  Canters,  insomuch  they  were  feigne  to  pawne  their 
Gownes  and  Smocks  the  next  day  to  buy  Oysters,  or  else  their  pride 
had  made  them  Cry  for  want  of  what  to  cry  withall. 

'  See  the  note  on  page  248. 


PUFFED   UP  BY  COACH-RIDING.  281 

"  Thus  much  I  can  speake  by  experience  ;  I  doe  partly  know  some 
of  mine  own  qualities  and  I  doe  knowe  that  I  doe  hate  pride,  as  I  hate 
famine  or  surfetting :  and  moreouer,  I  know  my  selfe  to  be  (at  the 
best)  but  lohn  Taylor,  and  a  mechanicall  Waterman,  yet  it  was  but 
my  chance  once  to  bee  brought  from  Whitehall  to  the  Tower  in  my 
Maister  Sir  William  Waade's  Coach,  and  before  I  had  beene  drawne 
twenty  yards,  such  a  Timpany  of  pride  puft  mee  vp,  that  I  was  ready 
to  burst  with  the  winde  Chollicke  of  vaine  glory.  In  what  state  I 
would  leane  ouer  the  Boote  and  look  and  pry  if  I  saw  any  of  my 
acquaintance,  and  then  I  would  stand  vp,  vayling  my  Bonnet,  kissing 
my  right  clawe,  extending  my  amies  as  I  had  beene  swimming,  with 
God  sane  your  Lordship,  Worship,  or  how  doest  thou  honest  neighbor 
or  good-fellow  ?  In  a  word  the  Coach  made  mee  thinke  myselfe  better 
than  my  betters  that  went  on  foote,  and  that  I  was  little  inferiour  to 
Tamberlaine,  being  iolted  thus  in  state  by  those  pampered  lades  of 
Belgia:  all  men  of  indiiferent  [unprejudiced?]  judgement  will  con- 
fesse,  that  a  Cart  is  an  instrument  conformable  to  law,  order  and  dis- 
cipline ;  for  it  rests  on  the  Sabboath  dayes,  and  commonly  all  "Holy 
dayes,  and  if  it  should  by  any  meanes  break  or  transgresse  against  any 
of  these  good  Iniunctions,  there  are  Informers  that  lye  in  ambush  (like 
carefull  Scowtes)  to  informe  against  the  poore  Gart,  that  in  conclusion 
my  Lady  Pecunia  must  become  surety  and  take  vp  the  matter,  or  else 
there  will  be  more  stirre  about  the  flesh  than  the  Broath  is  worth : 
whereas  (on  the  contrary)  a  Goach  like  a  Pagan,  an  Heathen,  an 
Infidel,  or  Atheist,  obserues  neither  Saboath  or  holiday,  time  or  sea- 
son, robustiously  breaking  through  the  toyle  or  net  of  deuine  and 
humane  law,  order  and  authority,  and  as  it  were  contemnning  all 
Christian  conformity :  like  a  dogge  that  lyes  on  a  heape  of  Hay,  who 
will  eate  none  of  it  himselfe,  nor  suffer  any  other  beast  to  eate  any : 
eucn  so  the  Coach  is  not  capable  of  hearing  what  a  Preacher  saith,  nor 
will  it  suffer  men  or  women  to  heare  that  would  heare,  for  it  makes 
such  a  hideous  rumbling  in  the  streetes  by  many  Church  dores,  that 
peoples  eares  are  stop'd  with  the  noyse,  whereby  they  are  debard  of 
their  edifying,  which  makes  faith  so  fruitlesse,  good  workes  so  barren, 
and  charity  as  cold  at  Midsommer,  as  if  it  were  a  great  Frost,  and  by 
this  meanes  souls  are  rob'd  and  starued  of  their  heauenly  Manna,  and 
the  Kingdome  of  darknesse  replenished  :  to  auoyd  which  they  have  set 
vp  a  crosse  post  in  Gheapside  on  Sundayes  neere  Woodstreet  end  which 


282  ENGLISH   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

make  the  Coaches  rattle  and  jumble  on  th'  other  side  of  the  way,  fur- 
ther fro  the  Church,  and  from  hindring  of  their  hearing.    .    .    . 

"The  Cart  is  an  open  transparant  Engine,  that  any  man  may  per- 
ceiue  the  plaine  honesty  of  it ;  there  is  no  part  of  it  within  or  without, 
but  it  is  in  the  continuall  view  of  all  men  :  On  the  contrary,  the  Coach 
is  a  close  hipocrite,  for  it  hath  a  couer  to  any  Knauery,  and  Curtaines 
to  vaile  or  shadow  any  wickednesse  :  l^esides  like  a  perpetuall  Cheater, 
it  weares  two  Bootes  and  no  spurres,  sometimes  having  two  paire  of 
legges  in  one  Boote,  and  often  times  (against  nature)  most  preposter- 
ously it  makes  tiiire  Ladies  weare  the  Boote;  and  if  you  note,  they 
are  carried  backe  to  backe,  like  people  surpriz'd  by  Pyrats,  to  be  tyed 
in  that  miserable  manner  and  throwne  ouer  boord  into  the  sea.  More- 
ouer  it  makes  people  imitate  sea  Crabs,  in  baing  drawne  sidewayes,  as 
they  are  when  they  sit  in  the  Boote  of  the  Coach,  and  it  is  a  dangerous 
kinde  of  carriage  for  the  Commonwealth,  if  it  be  rightly  considered : 
for  when  a  man  shall  be  a  lustice  of  the  Peace,  a  Serieant,  or  a  Coun- 
cellor  at  Law ;  what  hope  is  it  that  all  or  many  of  them  should  vse 
vpright  dealing,  that  haue  been  so  often  in  their  youth  and  daily  in 
their  maturer  or  riper  age  drawne  aside  continually  in  a  Coach,  some  to 
the  right  hand,  and  some  to  the  left?  for  vse  makes  perfectnesse  and 
often  going  aside  willingly  makes  men  forget  to  goe  vpright  naturally. 

"The  order  of  Knighthood  is  booth  of  great  Antiquity  and  very 
honorable,  yet  within  these  later  times  there  is  a  sti-ange  mysterie 
crept  into  it,  for  I  haue  noted  it,  that  when  a  Gentleman  hath  the 
sword  laid  upon  his  shoulder,  either  by  his  Prince,  or  his  Deputy,  or 
Generall  in  the  field,  although  the  blow  with  the  sword  be  an  honour  to 
the  man,  yet  (by  a  kinde  of  inspiration)  it  cripples  his  wife,  though 
shee  be  at  that  time  300  miles  from  her  husband,  for  if  you  but  note 
her,  you  shall  see  her  lamed  foreuer,  so  that  shee  can  by  no  meanes  goe 
without  leading  vnder  the  arme,  or  else  shee  must  be  carried  in  a 
Coach  all  her  life  time  after;  forgetting  in  a  manner  to  goe  to  her 
feete  so  much  as  to  Church,  though  it  be  but  two  Quoytes  cast :  for  I 
haue  heard  of  a  Gentlewoman  that  was  lamed  in  this  manner,  who  sent 
her  man  to  [from]  Smithfield  to  Charring-Crosse ,  to  hyre  a  Coach  to 
carry  her  to  Whitehall :  another  did  the  like  from  Ludgate-hill,  to  be 
carried  to  see  a  Play  at  the  Blacke-Friers  :  ^  and  in  former  times  when 

'  All}'-  oae  familiar  with  tliese  localities  will  readily  perceive  that  the  old  watermau 


QBE  AT   UTILITY  OF  THE   CART.  283 

Ihey  vsed  to  walkc  on  foote,  and  recreate  tliemselues,  they  were  both 
strong  and  healthful! ;  now  all  their  exercise  is  priuately  to  sawe  Bil- 
lets, to  hang  in  a  Swinge,  or  to  rowle  the  great  Rowler  in  the  Alleles 
of  their  Garden,  but  to  goe  without  leading,  or  Riding  in  a  Coach  is 
such  an  impeachment  and  derogation  to  their  Calling,  which  flesh  and 
bloud  can  by  no  meanes  endure. 

"Euery  man  knowes,  that  were  it  not  for  the  Gari  the  Hay  would 
Rot  in  the  medowes,  the  Corne  perish  in  the  field,  the  markets  be 
emtily  furnished  ;  at  the  Courts  remoue  the  King  would  bee  vnserued 
any  many  a  Gallant  would  be  enforced  to  bee  his  owne  Sumpter-horse 
to  carrie  his  luggage,  bag  and  baggage  himselfe :  and  finally,  were  it 
not  for  the  mannerly  and  courteous  seruice  of  the  Oart,  many  a  well 
deseruiug  ill  condition'd  braue  fellow  might  goe  on  foote  to  the  Gal- 
lowes. 

"A  Oart  (by  the  judgment  of. an  honorable  and  graue  Lawyer)  is 
elder  brother  to  a  Goach  for  Antiquity :  and  for  vtility  and  profit,  all 
the  world  knowes  which  is  which  ;  yet  so  vunaturall  and  so  vnmannerly 
a  brother  the  Goach  is,  that  it  will  glue  no  way  to  the  Gart,  but  with 
pride,  contempt,  bitter  curses  and  execrations,  the  Coachman  wishes 
all  the  Carts  on  fire,  or  at  the  diuell,  and  that  Carmen  were  all  hang'd 
when  they  cannot  passe  at  their  pleasures,  quite  forgetting  themselues 
to  bee  sawcy  vnprofitable  intruders,  vpstarts  and  luuocators." 

Next  comes  an  immodest  paragraph  we  must  pass  by ;  then  we  are 
told,  "What  excessiue  waste  do  they  make  of  our  best  broadcloath  of 
all  colours?  and  many  times  a  young  heire  will  put  his  old  Fathers  old 
Coach  in  a  mourning  Gowne  of  Cloth  or  Cotton,  when  many  of  the 
poore  distressed  members  of  Christ,  goe  naked,  staruing  with  cold, 
not  having  any  thing  to  hide  their  wretched  carkasses ;  and  what 
spoyle  of  our  Veluets,  Damaskes,  Tafititaes,  Siluer  and  Gold  Lace, 
with  Frinsres  of  all  sorts,  and  how  much  consumed  in  cfuildin":,  wherein 
is  spent  no  small  quantity  of  our  best  and  finest  gold,  nor  is  the  charge 
little  of  maintaining  a  Goach  in  reparation ;  for  the  very  mending  of 
the  Harnesse,  a  Knights  Coachman  brought  in  a  bill  to  his  Master  of 
25.  pounds  :  besides,  there  is  vsed  more  care  and  diligence  in  matching 
the  Horses  and  Mares,  then  any  fathers  and  mothers  doe  in  the  mar- 
riage of  their  sonnes  and  daughters :  for  many  times  a  rich  lubberly 

meant  to  show  that  iu  both  cases  these  women  sent  their  servants  lon(/  distances  for 
coaches  to  carry  them  only  a  short  journey. 


284  ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

Clowne,  the  soiine  of  some  gowty  extortioner,  or  rent-racking  Rascall, 
(for  his  accursed  muckes  sake)  may  bee  matched  with  a  beautiful  or 
proper  well  qualified  and  nobly  descended  Gentlewoman,  and  a  well- 
fac'd  handsome  Esquire  or  Knights  sonne  and  heire  may  be  ioin'd  with 
a  loiners  puppet,  or  the  daughter  of  a  Sexton :  but  for  the  choyce  of 
your  Coach-horses  there  is  another  manner  of  prouidence  to  bee  vsed, 
for  they  must  be  all  of  a  colour,  longitude,  latitude,  Cresitude,  height, 
length,  thicknesse,  breadth,  (I  muse  they  do  not  weigh  them  in  a 
paire  of  Ballance)  and  beeing  once  matched  with  a  great  deale  of  care 
and  cost,  if  one  of  them  chance  to  dye  (as  by  experience  I  know  a 
Horse  to  bee  a  mortall  beast)  then  is  the  Coach  like  a  maymed  crip- 
ple, not  able  to  trauel,  till  after  much  diligent  search  a  meete  mate  be 
found  whose  correspondency  may  be  as  equiualent  to  the  suruiuing 
Palfrey,  and  in  all  respects  as  like  as  a  Broome  to  a  Beesome,  Barme 
or  Yeast,  or  Quodlings  to  boyld  Apples. 

"  The  mischiefes  that  haue  bin  done  by  them  are  not  to  be  numbred ; 
as  breaking  of  legges  and  armes,  ouerthrowing  downe  hils,  ousr 
bridges,  running  ouer  children,  lame  and  old  people,  as  Henrie  the 
Fourth  of  France,  (the  fiither  to  the  King  that  now  raigneth)  he  and 
his  Queene  were  once  like  to  haue  beene  drowned,  the  Coach  ouerthrow- 
ing besides  a  bridge,  and  to  proue  that  a  Coach  owed  him  an  vnfortunato 
tricke,  hee  was  some  few  yeeres  after  his  first  escape,  most  inhumanely 
and  traitrously  murdred  in  one,  by  Rauiliache  in  the  streets  at  Paris: 
but  what  need  I  runne  my  inuention  out  of  breath  into  foraigne  coun- 
treys  for  examples,  when  many  of  the  chiefe  Nobilitie  and  Gentrie  of 
our  owne  Natione  have  some  triall  and  sad  experience  of  the  truth  of 
what  I  write?  sometimes  the  Coachman  (it  may  be  hath  bin  drunke, 
or  to  speake  more  mannerly  stolne  a  Manchet  out  of  the  Brewers 
Basket)  hath  tumbled  besides  his  Boxe  of  State,  and  the  Coach  run- 
ning ouer  him  hath  kild  him,  the  whilst  the  horses  (hauing  the  reines 
loose)  haue  runne  away  with  their  Eattle  at  their  heeles  (like  dogges 
that  had  bladders  of  dried  Beanes,  or  empty  bottles  at  their  tailes)  as 
if  the  deuill  had  beene  in  them,  and  sometimes  in  the  full  speede  of 
their  course  a  wheele  breakes,  or  the  Naue  slips  off  from  the  Axletree, 
downe  leapes  the  Coachman,  and  away  runnes  the  horses,  throwing 
their  carriage  into  bushes,  hedges,  and  ditches,  neuer  leaving  their 
mad  pace  till  they  haue  torne  to  tatters  their  tumbling  Tumbrell,  to 
the  manifest  perill,  danger,  and  vnrecouerable  hurt  to  those  whom 


WOBTHLESSNESS  OF  OLD  COACHES.  285 

they  carry,  and  to  all  men,  women,  children,  and  cattell,  as  Iloggcs, 
Sheepe,  or  whatsoeuer  chanceth  to  bee  in  their  way  :  besides  the  great 
cost  and  charge  of  mending  Reparations  of  the  Coach. 

"  There  is  almost  nothing,  but  when  it  is  worne  out,  it  will  serue  for 
some  vse,  either  for  profit  or  pleasure  (except  a  Ooach;)  of  the  bot- 
tome  of  an  old  Cart,  one  may  make  a  fence  to  stop  a  gap,  of  the 
Eaues  one  may  make  a  Ladder  for  Hennes  to  goe  to  Roost,  of  an  oldo 
Bores  Franke,  a  new  Dogge-kennell  may  be  founded ;  of  a  decayed 
Whirry  or  Boat,  a  backe-part  of  a  house  of  office  may  be  framed  (as 
you  may  see  eury  where  on  the  Banke-side;)  of  an  olde  Barrell,  a 
bolting  Hutch,  an  ouer  ...  I  knew  a  neighbour  of  mine  (an  olde 
Justice)  that  of  the  bald  veluet  lyning  of  his  Cloake,  made  him  a  paire 
of  new  Breeches,  and  those  Breeches  being  worne  past  the  best,  with 
the  best  of  them,  he  made  his  wife  a  new  French  Hoode,  and  when 
that  was  bare,  and  past  her  wearing,  it  made  him  facing  for  his  new 
Boote-tops :  but  an  old  Coach  is  good  for  nothing  but  to  cousen  and 
deceiue  people,  as  of  the  olde  rotten  Leather  they  make  Vampires  for 
high  Shooes,  for  honest  Country  Plow-men,  or  Belts  for  Souldiers,  or 
inner  lynings  for  Girdles,  Dogges-chollers  for  Mastiffes,  indeede,  the 
Boxe  if  it  were  bored  thorow,  would  bee  fittest  for  a  close  stoole,  and 
the  body  would  (perhaps)  serue  for  a  Sow  to  pigge  in. 

"  If  the  curses  of  people  that  are  wrong'd  by  them  might  haue  pre- 
uailed,  sure  I  thinke  the  most  part  of  them  had  beene  at  the  deuill 
many  yeeres  agoe.  Butchers  cannot  passe  with  their  cattel  for  them  : 
Market  folkes  which  bring  prouision  of  victualls  to  the  Citie,  are 
stop'd,  stay'd  and  hindred.  Carts  or  Waynes  with  their  necessary 
lading  are  debard  and  letted,  the  Milke-maydes  ware  is  often  spilt  in 
the  dirt,  and  peoples  guts  like  to  be  crushed  out  being  crowded  and 
shrowded  vp  against  stalls,  and  stoopes,  whilst  Mistris  Siluerpin  with 
her  Pander,  and  a  paire  of  cram'd  Pullets,  ride  grinning  and  deriding 
in  their  Hel-cart,i  at  their  miseries  who  go  on  foote.  I  myselfe  have 
been  so  serued,  when  I  haue  wished  them  all  in  the  great  Breach,  or 
on  a  lighte  fire  on  Hownslow-Heath,  or  Salisbury  Plaine;  and  their 
damming  vp  the  streetes  in  this  manner,  where  peoj)le  are  wedo-ed 
together  that  they  can  hardly  stirre  is  a  maine  and  great  aduantao-e  to 


'  Evelyu,  iu  his  Character  of  England,  published  iu  1G59,  informs  us  that  Loudou- 
ers  still  called  coaches  helcarts,  the  uaine  given  them  by  John  Taylor  tvveuty  years 
before. 


286  ENGLISH   WOBLD  ON  WHEELS. 

the  most  virtuous  Mysterie  of  purse-cutting,  and  for  anythinge  I  knowe 
the  hyred  or  Hackney-Coachman  may  ioyne  in  confederacy  and  share 
with  the  Cutpurse,  one  to  stop  vp  the  way,  and  the  other  to  shift  in  the 
crowd. 

"The  superflous  vse  of  Coaches  hath  been  the  occasions  of  many 
vile  and  odious  crimes,  as  murther,  theft,  cheating,  hangings,  whip- 
pings. Pillories,  stockes  and  cages ;  for  house-keeping  neuer  decaied 
till  Coaches  came  into  England,  till  which  time  those  were  accounted 
the  best  men  who  had  most  followers  and  retainers ;  then  land  about 
or  neere  London  was  thought  deare  enough  at  a  noble  the  Aker 
yeerely,  and  a  ten-pound  house-rent  now,  was  scarce  twenty-shillings 
then :  but  the  witchcraft  of  the  Coach  quickly  mounted  the  price  of 
all  things  (except  poore  mens  labour)  and  withall  transformed  in  some 
placed  10,  20,  30,  40,  50,  60,  or  100  proper  seruingmen,  into  two  or 
three  Animals  (^videlicet)  a  Butterfly  page,  a  trotting  footeman,  a 
stijffe-drinking  Coachman,  a  Cooke,  a  Clarke ;  a  Steward,  and  a  But- 
ler, which  hath  enforced  many  a  discarded  tall  fellow  (through  want 
of  meanes  to  Hue,  and  grace  to  guide  him  in  his  pouertie)  to  fall  into 
such  mischieuous  actions  before  named,  for  which  I  thinke  the  Gal- 
lowses in  England  have  deuoured  as  many  lusty  valiant  men  within 
these  30  or  40  yeeres,  as  would  haue  beene  a  sufficient  armie  to  beate 
the  foes  of  Christ  out  of  Christendome,  and  marching  to  Constantino- 
ple, haue  pluck'd  the  great  Turke  by  the  Beard  :  but  as  is  afore  said, 
this  is  the  age  wherein  The  World  Runnes  on  Wheeles. 

"It  is  a  most  vneasie  kinde  of  passage  in  Coaches  on  the  paued 
streetes  in  London,  wherein  men  and  women  are  so  tost,  tumbled, 
iumbled,  rumbled,  and  crossing  of  kennels,  dunghils,  and  vneueu- 
wayes,  Avhich  is  enough  to  put  all  the  guts  in  their  bellies  out  of  joynt, 
to  make  them  haue  the  Palsey  or  Megrum,  or  to  cast  their  Gorges 
with  continuell  rocking  and  wallowing :  to  preuent  which,  there  was  a 
Gentleman  of  great  note,  found  fault  with  his  Coach-horses,  because 
his  coach  iolted  him,  commanding  his  man  to  sell  away  those  hard 
trotting  lades,  and  to  buy  him  a  paire  of  Amblers,  that  might  drawe 
him  with  more  ease :  another  when  hee  saw  one  of  his  horses  more 
lusty  and  free  than  his  fellow,  he  commanded  his  Coach-man  to  feede 
him  only  with  Hay  and  Avater,  till  hee  were  as  tame  and  quiet  as  the 
other,  which  wise  command  was  dutifully  obserued. 

"  The  best  vse  that  was  euer  made  of  Coaches  was  in  the  olde  warres 


COACHES  PESTEB  THE  STREETS.  287 

betwixt  the  Hungarians  and  the  Turkes,  (for  like  so  many  land  Gal- 
lies)  they  carried  Soldiers  on  each  side  with  Crossbowes,  and  other 
warrelike  engins,  and  they  serued  for  good  vse  being  many  thousands 
of  them,  to  disrowte  their  enemies,  breaking  their  rankes  and  order, 
making  free  and  open  passage  for  their  horse  and  foote  amongst  the 
scattered  squadrons  and  regiments,  and  vpon  occassion  they  serued  as 
a  wall  to  Embarricado  and  fortifie  their  campe  :  this  was  a  millitarie 
imployment  for  Coaches,  and  in  this  sorte  onely  I  could  wish  all  our 
hyrelings  to  be  vsed.  It  is  to  be  supposed  that  Pharaohs  charriots 
which  were  drowned  in  the  Red  sea,  were  no  other  things  in  shape  and 
fashion,  then  our  Coaches  are  at  this  time,  and  what  great  pitty  was  it, 
that  the  makers  and  memories  of  them  had  not  beene  obliuiously  swal- 
lowed in  that  Egiptian  downfall  ?  " 

In  the  twenty-second  year  of  the  reign  of  James  I  (1625),  twenty 
hackney-coaches  i  were  set  up  in  London,  and  stood  ready  at  the  inns 
for  hire  when  wanted,  although,  as  we  have  seen  from  Taylor's  work,* 
they  were  to  be  had  elsewhere  much  earlier.  In  the  time  of  Charles  I, 
ten  years  later,  there  was  a  law  passed  forbidding  the  "  general  and 
promiscuous  use  of  them  in  London  and  Westminster,  or  the  suburbs, 
they  being  not  only  a  great  disturbance  to  His  Majesty,  his  dearest 
consort  the  Queen,  the  nobility,  and  others  of  place  and  degree,  in 
their  passage  through  the  streets ;  but  the  streets  themselves  are  so 
pestered,  and  the  pavement  broken  up,  that  the  common  passage  is 
hereby  hindered,  and  the  prices  of  hay  and  corn  exceedingly  dear. 
Therefore  it  is  recommended  and  forbidden  that  no  hired  coaches 
should  be  used  in  London,  etc.,  except  they  be  to  travel  three  miles 
out  of  the  same  ;  and  also  that  no  persons  shall  go  in  a  coach,  in  the  said 
streets,  except  the  owners  of  the  coach  shall  constantly  keep  up  favor- 
able horses  for  our  service  when  required."    This  proclamation  alluded 

^  The  term  "hackney,"  which  formerly  was  applied  to  a  horse  let  for  hire,  is  by 
some  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  Welsh  and  Teutonic  word  hacknai ;  but  the  first 
coaches  that  ran  for  the  conveyance  of  casual  passengers  started  from  Hackney,  car- 
rying their  fares  to  London.  From  this  circumstance  undoubtedly  they  came  to  be 
called  "hackney-coaches."  As  we  have  elsewhere  shown  (p.  220),  they  were  not 
introduced  into  Paris,  under  the  name  of  "flacres,"  until  1650,  twenty-five  years  later. 
Some  years  afterward  (1784),  when  umbrellas  were  introduced  from  Taris  by  one  John 
Jameson,  there  was  great  opposition  shown  to  their  use  1)y  the  chairmen  and  hackney- 
men  of  London,  under  the  impression  that  they  were  detrimental  to  business,  —  such 
is  the  seUisiiuess  of  man. 


288  ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

to  such  public  coaches  as  had  then  recently  been  established  by  private 
persons,  who  had  contracted  to  carry  passengers  from  one  town  to 
another,  without  springs,  and  were  so  designated.  But  it  is  said  that 
these  coaches  moved  with  much  caution  and  great  solemnity,  the 
horses  seldom  if  ever  being  allowed  to  indulge  in  a  trot. 

An  individual  who  had  engaged  in  the  livery  business  about  this 
time  is  thus  noticed  in  a  letter  from  Garrard  to  Strafi'ord :  "  I  cannot 
omit  to  mention  any  new  thing  that  comes  up  amongst  us,  though  evQr 
so  trivial.  There  is  one  Captain  Bailey,  he  hath  been  a  sea-captain, 
but  now  lives  on  land,  about  this  city,  where  he  tries  experiments. 
He  hath  erected,  according  to  his  ability,  some  four  hackney-coaches, 
put  his  men  in  livery,  and  appointed  them  to  stand  at  the  May-pole  in 
the  Strand,  giving  them  instructions  at  what  rates  to  carry  men  into 
several  parts  of  the  town,  where  all  day  long  they  may  be  had.  Other 
hackney-men  seeing  this  way  they  flocked  to  the  same  place,  and  per- 
form their  journeys  at  the  same  rate,  so  that  sometimes  there  is  twenty 
of  them  together,  which  disperse  up  and  down,  so  that  they  and  others 
are  to  be  had  everywhere,  as  watermen  are  to  be  had  by  the  water-side. 
Everybody  is  much  pleased  with  it ;  for  whereas  before  coaches  could 
be  had  but  at  great  rates,  now  a  man  may  have  one  much  cheaper." 
Indeed,  Ave  find  in  Massinger's  "  City  Madam,"  that  no  lady  stirred 
without  her  coach ;  and  even  when  she  went  to  church,  it  was  not  for 
devotion,  but  to  show  her  pomp. 

In  a  small  volume,  the  first  edition  of  which  was  published  in  1631, 
under  the  title  of  "  Orbis  Sensualium  Pictus,"  ^  mention  is  made  of  the 
following  vehicles  as  then  in  use :  first,  the  hanging-wagon,  or  coach 
(currus  pensilis),  drawn  by  six  horses,  and  used  by  great  persons; 
second,  the  chariot,  drawn  by  two  horses.  The  same  author  speaks 
of  horse-litters  (a.rcerm  lecticce) . 

This  same  year  the  inhabitants  of  Blackfriars  were  so  much  annoyed 
that  they  petitioned  the  Privy  Council  against  the  number  of  coaches 
bringing  auditors  to  the  theaters  there.  In  the  general  clamor  for 
their  suppression,  both  prose -writers  and  poets  joined  their  energies 

'  This  was  originally  written  iu  Latin,  designed  for  the  instruction  of  young  per- 
sons. A  copy  of  the  work  in  English,  "adorned  with  many  wood-cuts,"  may  be  found 
in  the  British  Museum.  The  full  title  is,  "Orftts  Sensualium  Pictus,  by  Joh.  Amos  Com- 
menii,  Euglished  by  Charles  Iloole.  London,  printed  for  J.  Kirton,  at  the  Kings- Arms, 
in  Saint  Paules  Churchyard,  1G58." 


SINGING   THE  COACHES  DOWN.  289 

"to  with  the  Hackney-coaches  dowiie."  So  popular  was  the  outcry 
that  two  ballads  were  written  and  published  at  the  time,  and  found  a 
ready  sale.^  They  were  sung  to  the  tune  of  "Old  King  Harry,"  and 
read  thus :  — 

"  As  I  passed  bye,  this  other  day, 
where  sack  and  claret  spring, 
I  heard  a  mad  crew  by  the  way, 
tliat  loud  did  laugh  and  sing  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  I 
They  cried  aloud  ; 
They  made  such  a  crowde, 
Men  cannot  passe  the  towne. 

"  The  boyes  that  brew  strong  ale,  and  care 
not  how  the  world  doth  swing, 
So  bonny,  blithe,  and  joviall  are, 
their  lives  are  drink  and  sing  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
To  make  them  roome, 
They  may  freely  come  — 
And  liquor  the  thirsty  towne. 

"  The  collier,  he 's  a  sack  of  mirth, 
and  though  as  black  as  soote, 
Yet  still  he  tunes  and  whistles  forth, 

and  this  is  all  the  note  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
They  long  made  fooles 
Of  poor  carry-coales, 
But  now  must  leave  the  towne. 

'  Copies  of  the  originals  are  preserved  in  a  portly  volume  among  other  sougs  of  the 
time,  in  the  British  Museum,  lettered  "  Boxbiirge  Ballads."  The  two  occupy  pages 
54:6  and  547,  headed,  "The  Coaches  Ouerthrow,  or  A  joviall  Exaltation  of  Divers  Trades- 
men, and  others,  for  the  Suppression  of  troublesome  Hackney  Coaches."  London,  printed 
by  Francis  Grove,  but  without  a  date.  The  "  broadside  "  is  printed  as  two  sougs :  the 
first  comprises  the  seven,  and  the  second  the  nine  last  verses,  which  we  give  as  one  song. 
The  first  portion  hag  at  the  top  a  rude  cut  of  a  coach  turned  bottom  upwards,  drawn 
by  two  horses  at  the  pole,  a  third  horse  leading,  riding  which  are  hostlers  in  livery,  a 
coachman  being  mounted  as  driver  on  a  rude-looking  dickey-seat.  Two  runners  on 
either  side  are  placed  opposite  the  hind  wheels.  The  second  has  an  engraving  of  a 
coarsely  designed  horse  and  cart,  accompanied  by  a  sedan,  borne  by  two  men.  Cham- 
bers's Book  of  Days  ascribes  the  authorship  to  John  Taylor,  which  is  extremely  doubt- 
19 


290  ENGLISH  WOBLB  ON  WHEELS. 

"  The  carriers  of  every  shire 
are,  as  from  cares  immune  ; 
So  joviall  is  this  packe-horse  quire, 

and  this  is  all  their  tune  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  I 
Farewell,  adew. 
To  the  jumping  crew. 
For  they  must  leave  the  towne. 

"  Although  a  carman  had  a  cold, 
he  strained  his  March-bird  voice, 
And  with  the  best  a  part  did  hold, 

to  sing  and  to  rejoyce  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
The  carman's  cars, 
And  the  merchants  wares. 
May  passe  along  the  towne. 

"  The  very  slugs  did  pipe  for  joy, 
that  coachmen  hence  should  hye  ; 
And  that  the  coaches  must  away  — 

a  mellowing  up  to  lye  : 
Heigh  downe,  deiy,  dery  downe  ! 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  1 
Passe  they  their  scope, 
As  round  as  a  roj^e, — 
Wee  '1  jogge  them  forth  of  the  towne. 

"  Promoters,  and  the  informers, 
that  oft  offences  hatch  ; 
In  all  our  times  the  money-wormes, 

and  they  are  for  to  catch  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  I 
For  their  restraints 
Will,  with  complaints, 
Fill  all  [the  noisy  towne].' 

"  The  world  no  more  shall  run  on  wlieeles, 
with  coach-men,  as  't  has  done  ; 

fill,  as  it  is  not  found  in  All  his  Works,  published  iu  1630;  nor  was  lie  mentally  equal 
to  the  task  of  its  composition. 

'  The  words  iu  brackets,  having  been  omitted  in  the  copy,  have  been  supplied  by 
Mr.  Collier,  from  conjecture,  who  remarks  that  "obvious  misprints  occur,  which  It 
is  not  worth  while  to  point  out."    With  this  verse  the  first  part  of  the  song  ends. 


SIJS^GII^G  IN  FAVOB  OF  SEDANS.  291 

But  they  must  take  them  to  their  heeles, 

and  try  how  they  can  run  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  I 

We  thought  they  'd  burst 

Their  pride,  since  first 
Swell'd  so  within  the  towne. 

"  The  sedan  does  (like  Atlas)  hope 
to  carry  heaven  pick-pack  ; 
And  likewise,  since  he  1ms  such  scope 

to  beare  the  towne  at 's  back  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coachmen  downe  1 
Arise,  Sedan, 
Thou  Shalt  be  the  man, 
To  beare  us  about  the  towne. 

"  I  love  sedans,  cause  they  do  plod 
and  amble  every  where  ; 
Which  prancers  are  with  leather  shod, 

and  ne'er  disturbe  the  eare  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  I 
Their  jumpings  make 
The  pavement  shake  ; 
Their  noyse  doth  mad  the  towne. 

"  The  elder  brother  shall  take  place  — 
the  youngest  brother  rise  : 
The  middle  brother's  out  of  grace  — 

and  every  tradesman  cryes  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
'T  would  save  much  hurt. 
Spare  dust  and  durt, 
Were  they  cleane  out  of  towne. 

"  The  sick,  the  weake,  the  lame  also, 
a  coach,  for  ease,  might  beg  ; 
When  they  on  foote  might  lightly  goe, 

that  are  as  at  right's  le?  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
Let's  foote  it  out, 
Ere  the  yeare  come  about  — 
'T  will  save  us  many  a  crowne. 


292  ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

"  What  though  we  trip  on  boots  and  shoes, 
't  will  ease  the  price  of  leather  ; 
"We  shall  get  twice  what  once  we  loose, 

when  they  do  fall  together  : 
Heigh  downs,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
Though  one  trade  fall 
Yet  in  generall, 
'T  is  a  good  to  all  the  towne. 

"  'T  is  an  undoing  unto  none, 
that  a  profession  use  ; 
Tis  good  for  all  —  not  hurt  to  one  — 

considering  the  abuse  : 
Then  heigh  downe,  dery,  dei-y  downe, 
with  the  hacknejf-coaches  dowue  ! 
Then  'tis  so  decreed, 
By  a  royall  deed 
To  make  it  a  happy  towne. 

"  Coach-makers  may  use  many  trades, 
and  yet  enough  of  meanes  ; 
And  coachmen  may  turne  off  their  jades 

and  helpe  to  draine  the  fens  ; 
Ilcigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  I 
The  scythe  and  flail 
Cart  and  plow-taile 
Doe  want  them  out  of  towne. 

"  But  to  conclude,  't  is  true  I  heare, 
they  '1  soon  be  out  of  fashion  ; 
'T  is  thought  they  very  likely  are 

to  have  a  long  vacation  : 
Heigh  downe,  dery,  dery  downe, 
with  the  hackney-coaches  downe  ! 
Their  terme  's  neare  done. 
And  shall  be  begun, 
No  more  in  London  towne." 

There  were  about  one  hundred  of  these  hackney-coaches  in  Lionclon 
in  1634,  "base,  lean  jades,  unworthy  to  be  seen  in  so  brave  a  city,  or 
to  stand  about  a  King's  court."  ^  A  proclamation  was  at  this  time 
issued  by  the  city  government  having  in  view  the  better  regulation 

»  Strafford's  Letters,  Vol.  I,  p.  266. 


COACH  AND  SEDAN  IN  DISPUTE. 


293 


of  the  luickiicy-coaches,  the  number  causing  inconvenience  to  com- 
merce. 

The  following  year  (1635)  sedans  were  introduced  l)y  Sir  Saunders 
Dunscombe,  under  a  license  from  Charles  I,  for  the  term  of  fourteen 
years.  These  soon  became  popular  in  London,  although,  judging* 
from  the  engravings  which  have  come  down  to  us,  they  Avere  rather 
cumbersome,  and  with  the  fare  a  heavy  burden  to  the  bearers.  Sir 
Saunders,  in  introducing  these  sedans,  declares  his  intention  to  be  to 
"interfere  with  the  too-frequent  use  of  coaches,  to  the  hindrance  of  the 
carts  and  carriages  employed  in  the  necessary  provision  of  the  city  and 
suburbs  of  London." 

The  rivalry  started  by  the  introduction  of  sedans,  "to  interfere  with 
the  too-frequent  use  of  coaches,"  probably  gave  rise  soon  after  to  the 
publication  of  a  very  humorous  tract,  entitled  "  Coach  and  Sedan ;  a 
pleasant  Dispute  for  Precedence,  the  Brewer's  Cart  being  Moderator.'  i 
The  parties  to  this  dispute  are  thus  described  :  "  The  one  (Sedan)  was 
in  a  suite  of  green,  after 
a  strange  manner,  win- 
dowed behind  and  before 
with  isinglasse  (talc),^  hav- 
ing two  handsome  fellows 
in  green  coats  attending 
him ;  the  one  ever  came 
before,  the  other  came 
behind.  Their coates  were 
lac'd  do wne  the  back  with  Sedan  of  1635. 

a  greene-lace  suitable  ;  so  were  their  half-sieves,  which  perswaded  me 
at  first  they  were  some  cast  [off]  suites  of  their  masters.  Their  backs 
were  harnessed  with  leather  cingles  cut  out  of  a  hide  as  broad  as  Dutch 
collops  of  bacon.  The  other  (Coach)  was  a  thick  burly  square-sett 
fellow,  in  a  doublet  of  black  leather,  brasse  button'd  do  wne  the  brest, 
backe,  sleeves  and  winges  with  monstrous  wide  bootes,  frinofed  at  the 


'  This  pamphlet,  Coach  and  Sedan,  etc.,  was  printed  by  Ilobert  Rawortli,  for  Jacob 
Crooch,  London,.  163G,  and  is  now  extremely  scarce.  The  engravings  on  this  and  the 
following  page  are  from  copies  which  grace  the  head  of  the  tract  as  originally  pub- 
lished. 

*  In  the  first  century  the  Romans  were  acquainted  with  sliiuing  glass  (talc),  as  ap- 
pears from  a  passage  in  Lactantius's  De  Opificis  Dei,  Cap.  V ;  and  is  likewise  inferred 
from  a  passage  in  Seneca's  Epist.  90. 


294 


ENGLISH   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


Coach   of  1635. 


to}:)  with  a  net  fringe  and  a  round  breech  after  the  okl  fashion,  guilded, 
and  on  his  backside  an  achievement  of  sundry  coats  in  their  proper 

colors,  &c.,  &c.  Hee  had  only 
one  man  before  him,  wrapt  in  a 
red  cloake,  with  wide  sleeves, 
turned  up  at  the  hands,  and  cud- 
gelled thick  on  the  back  and  shoul- 
ders with  broad  shining  lace  (not 
much  unlike  that  which  mummers 
make  of  strawen  hatts)  ;  and  on 
each  side  of  him  went  a  lacquay, 
the  one  a  French  boy,  the  other  Irish,  both  sutable  alike." 

The  author,  by  way  of  argument,  makes  Sedan  say,  "And  Coach, 
twice  or  thrice  a  yeare  you  must  needes  take  a  boone  [good]  voyage 
to  London  with  your  ladie,  under  a  cullor  [jacket],  to  bee  new  cul- 
lour'd,  gnilded,  or  painted,  covered,  seated,  shod,  or  the  like ;  when 
her  errand  indeede  is,  as  one  saith  well,  speaking  to  such  ladies  as 
love  to  visit  the  cite, 

'  To  see  what  fashion  most  is  in  request  — 
How  is  this  Countess,  and  that  court  ladie  drest.' 

"Hence  it  happens,  Coach,  that  by  your  often  ambling  to  London, 
Sir  Thomas  or  Sir  John,  sinks  (as  in  a  quick-sand)  by  degrees,  so 
deep  into  the  merchant,  mercer,  or  taylor's  booke,  that  hee  is  up  to 
the  eares,  ere  hee  be  aware  ;  neither  can  hee  be  well  drawne  out  with- 
out a  teame  of  vsnrers,  and  a  craftie  scrivener  to  be  the  fore-horse,  or 
the  present  sale  of  some  land  ;  so  that  wise  men  suppose  this  to  be  one 
maine  and  principall  reason  why  within  a  coach  journey  of  a  day  or 
two  from  the  citie,  so  many  faire  inheritances  as  have  been  purchased 
by  lord-maiors,  alderman,  merchants,  and  other  rich  citizens,  have  not 
continued  in  a  name  to  the  third  —  yea,  scarce  the  second  generation ; 
when,  go  farre  north  or  westward,  you  shall  find  many  families  and 
names  of  nobilitie  and  gentrie  to  have  continued  their  estates  two  and 
three  hundred  yeeres  and  more  in  a  direct  succession." 

The  "Beere-cart"  Judge  closes  the  trial  by  saying,  "Coach  and 
Sedan  you  bothe  shall  reverence,  and  ever  give  way  to  beere  (or 
brewer's)  cart,  wheresoever  you  shall  meete  him,  either  in  citie  or 
countrie,  as  your  auncient  and  elder  brother."     Upon  this  decision, 


A   FEEWCHMAN\S  DISPUTATION.  295 

Adams  remarks,  that  Beere-cart's  charge  makes  him  an  apt  disciple  of 
the  lawyer  who  gave  the  celebrated  oyster  decision  in  another  case. 
Messsr.  Coach  and  Sedan,  being  neither  of  them  satisfied  with  the  decis- 
ion of  "Judge  Beere-cart,"  took  exceptions  to  the  rulings,  and  appealed 
to  a  higher  court,  where  the  case  was  again  argued  between  a  Londoner 
and  a  Parisian  with  much  vehemence,  when  the  question  seems  to  have 
assumed  another  form,  —  the  superiority  of  the  respective  cities  each 
represented.  The  proceedings,  extracted  from  Sir  William  Dave- 
uant's  works,  are  as  follows :  "  The  song  being  ended  [at  Rutland 
House] ,  a  consorte  of  instrumental  music  after  the  French  composi- 
tion being  hearde  awhile,  the  curtains  are  suddenly  opened,  and  in  the 
rostras  appear  sitting  a  Parisian  and  a  Londoner,  in  the  livery  robes 
of  the  two  cities,  who  declare  concerning  the  pre-eminence  of  Paris  and 
London.  The  Frenchman  introduced  the  disputation  thus  :  '  You  of 
this  noble  citie  are  yet  to  become  more  noble  by  your  candour  to  the 
plea  betweene  mee  a  bourgeois  of  Paris,  and  my  opponent  of  London ; 
being  concerned  in  honor  to  lend  your  attention  as  favourably  to  a 
stranger  as  to  your  native  oratour ;  since  'tis  the  greatest  signe  of  a  narrow 
education  to  permit  the  borders  of  rivers  or  strands  of  seas  to  seperate 
the  generall  consanguinity  of  mankinde  ;  though  the  unquiet  nature  of 
man  (still  hoping  to  shake  off  distant  power,  and  the  incapacity  of  any 
one  to  sway  universal  empire)  hath  made  them  bounds  to  divide  gov- 
ernment. But  already  I  thinke  it  necessary  to  cease  persuading  you, 
who  will  ever  deserve  to  be  my  judges,  and  therefore  mean  to  apply 
myself  in  admonishing  him  who  is  pleased  awhile  to  be  my  adver- 
sarie.' " 

After  advancing  sharp  and  critical  remarks  not  pertinent  to  the 
question  in  dispute,  the  orator  goes  back  to  "  the  days  of  wheelbarrows, 
before  those  greater  engines,  carts,  were  invented,  or  before  an  um- 
brella of  tiles  was  contrived  to  intercept  the  sun's  rays,  or  that  the 
shambles  were  so  emptie  that  fresh  aire  was  to  be  avoided,  lest  it 
should  sharpen  the  appetite,"  he  continues:  "I  have  now  left  your 
houses ;  I  am  passing  through  your  streets ;  but  not  in  a  coach,  for 
they  are  uneasylie  hung  and  so  narrow  that  I  took  them  for  sedans 
upon  wheels.  Nor  is  it  safe  for  a  stranger  to  use  them  'till  the  quarrel 
be  decided,  whether  six  of  your  nobles  sitting  together  shall  stop  and 
give  place  to  so  many  barrels  of  beere.  Your  citie  is  the  only  me- 
tropolis in  Europe  where  there  is  a  wonderful  dignity  belonging  to 


296  ENGLISH  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

carts  !  Master  Londoner,  be  not  too  hot  against  coaches ;  take  advice 
from  one  that  eats  much  sorrell  with  his  brothe."  ^ 

Although  the  speech  of  the  Londoner  is  not  recorded,  yet  we  infer 
that  he  was  in  accord  with  the  pamphleteers  and  song-writers  of  the 
day.  Nor  were  these  alone  the  complainants,  for  we  are  told  that  in 
1639  "  the  citizen  shopkeepers  in  London  made  bitter  charges  that 
they  were  ruined  by  the  coaches."  For,  said  they,  "  Formerly  when 
ladies  and  gentlemen  walked  in  the  streets,  there  was  a  chance  of 
obtaining  customers  to  inspect  and  purchase  commodities ;  but  now 
they  whisk  past  in  their  coaches  before  our  apprentices  have  time  to 
cry  out,  'What  d'ye  lack?'"  Those  tradesmen  who  occupied  shops 
on  the  more  public  thoroughfares,  and  were  accustomed  to  let  out 
their  upper  rooms  to  members  of  Parliament  and  gentlemen  from  the 
country,  sometimes  for  enough  to  pay  the  rents,  likewise  complained 
that  the  noise  of  the  coaches  had  driven  this  profitable  class  of  lodgers 
to  less  frequented  places,  to  their  serious  loss. 

Amid  all  this  clamor  against  coaches.  Sir  Christopher  Van  Berg  was 
perfecting  "  an  invencon  whereby  the  smythe's  bellows  may  be  made 
to  blow  without  putting  to  any  hand,  either  to  houlde  or  to  draw 
them";  and  "also  invencons  of  a  kinde  of  waggons,  waynes,  coaches, 
carts,  litters,  wheelbarrows,  packsaddles,  and  side-saddles,  better  for 
ease,  advantage  and  profitt  than  hitherto  have  been  vsed,"  besides  other 
things,  which  stamp  him  as  "the  man  for  the  times,"  when  everybody 
was  engaged  in  a  crusade  against  the  "Hel-carts."  Added  to  this  the 
ladies  seem  to  have,  unconsciously  we  suppose,  lent  their  influence  in 
making  these  "  trade-spoilers  "  popular.  There  is  a  cut  in  Pulgrave's 
"Artificial  Changeling,"  published  in  1650,  showing  that  it  was  then 
very  fashionable  for  the  ladies  to  wear  patches  of  black  on  their  faces ; 
among  the  rest,  such  as  stars,  the  crescent,  etc.,  appears  a  coach,  with 
the  coachman,  horses,  and  a  postilion,  cut  out  of  cloth,  and  pasted  on 
her  forehead.  The  author  of  "  God's  Voice  against  Pride  in  Apparel," 
pul)lished  in  1663,  says,  "Methinks  the  mourning  coach  and  horses,  all 
in  black,  and  plying  in  their  [the  women's]  foreheads,  stands  ready 
harnessed  to  whirl  them  to  Archeron."     In  the  "  Ladies'  Directory " 

'  Coaches  have  been  known  to  cross  the  Atlantic.  A  vessel  called  the  Coach,  and 
owned  in  England,  touched  at  Boston  in  1640.  (Winthrop's  History  of  New  England, 
Vol.  II,  p.  23,  2d  edit.,  Boston,  1853.)  The  council  chamber  of  a  man-of-war  was 
called  the  "coach."     (Pepys's  Journal,  May  3,  1660.) 


PROGRESS   OF  HACKNEY-COACHES.  297 

(1674)  we  are  informed  that  the  ''dear  creatures"  "had  no  doubt  got 
a  room  in  the  Chronicles  among  the  prodigies  and  monstrous  beasts, 
had  they  been  born  with  moons,  stars,  crosses  and  lozenges  upon  their 
cheeks,  especially  had  they  brought  into  the  world  with  them  a  coach 
and  horses  !  "  i 

It  is  curious  to  watch  the  rate  of  progress  in  hackney-coaches.  In 
1652  they  were  limited  by  Act  of  Parliament  to  two  hundred  "in  the 
Metropolis  and  six  miles  round  it."  In  1654  only  three  hundred  were 
allowed,  with  six  hundred  horses  to  work  them.  In  1661  they  num- 
bered four  hundred,  at  which  they  remained  for  thirty-three  years. 
In  1694  they  had  increased  to  seven  hundred.  In  1715  they  numbered 
eight  hundred.  In  1771  they  reached  one  thousand  in  number.  In 
1832,  when  these  hacks  numbered  twelve  hundred,  all  restrictions 
were  removed. 

That  the  business  of  the  watermen  remained  uninjured  by  the  intro- 
duction of  coaches,  is  manifest  from  the  following  circumstance  related 
by  Pepys,  under  date  of  1659,  when  Taylor  had  been  in  his  grave  six 
years  :  "  In  our  way  to  London  Bridge  we  talked  Avith  our  waterman, 
White,  who  told  us  how  the  watermen  had  lately  been  abused  by  some 
who  had  a  desire  to  get  in  to  be  watermen  to  the  State,  and  had  lately 
presented  an  address  of  nine  or  ten  thousand  hands  to  stand  by  this 
Parliament,  when  it  was  only  told  them  that  it  was  a  petition  against 
hackney-coaches;  and  that  to-day  (Feb.  1)  they  had  put  out  another 
to  imdeceive  the  world  and  clear  themselves."^ 

Under  the  governments  of  Cromwell  and  Charles  II  coaches  contin- 
ued to  increase  in  the  face  of  all  opposition.     Even  on  the  first  day 

'  "This  is  the  first  day  that  ever  I  saw  my  wife  wear  black  Patches."  —  Pepys's 
Diarij,  Feb.  30,  1660. 

^  A  volume  entitled  "A  century  of  the  names  and  scantlings  of  such  inventions,  as 
at  present  I  can  call  to  mind,  to  have  tried  and  perfected ;  which  (my  former  notes 
being  lost)  I  have,  at  the  instance  of  a  powerful  friend,  endeavored  now,  in  the  year 
1655,  to  set  them  down  in  such  a  way  as  may  sufficiently  instruct  me  to  put  any  of  them 
in  practice."  This  volume  was  written  by  Edward,  the  second  Marquis  of  Worces- 
ter, and  published  by  J.  Grismond,  London,  1663.  The  author  mentions  "a  coach 
saving  engine"  among  other  ingenious  inventions,  described  as  "a  little  engine  within 
a  coach  whereby  a  child  may  stop  it,  and  secure  all  persons  within  it,  and  the  coach- 
man himself,  though  the  horses  be  never  so  unruly  in  a  full  career;  a  child  being 
sufficiently  capable  to  loosen  them,  in  what  posture  soever  they  should  have  put 
themselves,  turning  never  so  short;  for  a  child  can  do  it  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye." 


298  ENGLISH   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

the  king's  proclamation  went  into  effect  against  hackney-coaches, 
Pepys  tells  us  he  got  one  to  cany  him  home. 

According  to  Markland,  who  quotes  from  the  "  Diary  of  Sir  William 
Dugdale,"  stage-coaches  were  established  as  early  as  1659.  They  seem, 
however,  to  have  multiplied  very  slowly,  for  we  find  that  thirteen 
years  afterwards  there  were  but  six  in  all  England.  But  even  this 
small  number  did  not  escape  the  condemnation  of  the  censors,  among 
whom  was  Sir  H.  Parnell.  He  says,  "These  stage-coaches  make  gen- 
tlemen come  to  London  on  very  small  occasions,  which  otherwise  they 
would  not  do  but  upon  urgent  necessity ;  nay,  the  convenience  of  the 
passage  makes  their  wives  often  come  up,  who  rather  than  come  such 
long  journeys  on  horseback,  would  stay  at  home.  Then  when  they 
come  to  town,  they  must  presently  be  in  the  mode,  get  fine  clothes, 
go  to  plays  and  treats,  and  by  these  means  get  such  a  habit  of  idleness 
and  love  of  pleasure  as  makes  them  uneasy  ever  afterwards." 

Post-chaises  for  private  traveling  came  into  use  in  1664,  and  were 
close-bodied  vehicles  on  four  wheels,  made  to  hold  three  persons 
inside,  all  facing  forward,  with  glasses  in  front.  These  were  drawn 
by  two  horses ;  a  boy  mounted  on  one  acted  as  driver.  The  expense 
of  posting  was  so  great  that  it  was  usually  shared  by  a  fellow-traveler 
to  lessen  the  cost.  After  the  invention  of  railroads,  as  we  shall  find, 
these  fell  into  disuse. 

When  springs  were  first  invented  is  not  known  with  certainty,  but 
the  following  from  Pepys's  "  Diary "  may  throw  some  light  upon  the 
subject.  Under  date  of  May  1,  1665,  mention  is  made  of  the  trial  of 
springs  applied  to  coaches,  the  body  of  which  "lay  upon  one  long 
spring,"  the  contrivance  of  one  Col.  Edward  Blount.  A  few  months 
later  he  says,  "For  curiosity  I  went  into  [the  Colonel's  chariot]  to  try 
it  and  up  the  hill  .  .  .  and  over  the  cart  ruts,  and  found  it  pretty 
well,  but  not  so  easy  as  he  pretends."  ^  In  a  subsequent  visit  the  same 
writer  says  he  saw  a  coachman  "sit  astride  upon  a  pole  over  the  horse," 
which  he  considers  "  a  pretty  odd  thing."  ^ 

"This  morning,"  says  Pepys,  under  date  of  March  15,  1666,3  "I  ^as 
called  up  by  Sir  John  Winter,  poor  man !  come  in  a  sedan  from  the 

'  Pepys's  Diary,  Sept.  5,  1665.  ^  Ibid.,  Jan.  22,  1665-6. 

'  In  this  year  tliere  was  a  great  Are  in  London,  before  which  time  coaches  were 
made  narrow,  so  as  to  accommodate  them  to  tlie  narrow  streets.  Afterwards  the 
streets  were  widened,  and  the  coaches  made  more  roomy. 


Horse. LiTTEK. 


A   MAJOR-GENERAUS  PERILOUS   RIDE.  299 

other  end  of  the  town,"  etc.,  from  which  we  infer  their  popularity  was 
on  the  wane,  although  they  were  occasionally  used.  The  public  in 
general  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  use  was  "  degrading  English- 
men into  slaves  and 
beasts  of  burden,"  and 
consequently  they  soon 
were  laid  aside,  and  the 
horse  littersubstituted  in 
their  place .  The  follow- 
ing incident,  which  took 
place  in  1680,  more  than 
fifty  years  after  the  in- 
troduction of  sedans, 
gives  us  some  insight  of  their  inconveniences.  "  Can  we  forget,"  says 
an  old  author,  "that  horrid  accident,  when  Major-General  Skippon 
came  in  a  horse-litter  wounded  to  London?  When  he  passed  the 
Brew-house,  near  St.  John  Street,  a  mastiif  flew  as  at  a  bear  at  one  of 
his  horses,  and  held  him  so  fast  that  the  horse  grew  mad  as  a  mad  dog  ; 
the  soldiers  were  so  amazed  that  none  had  the  will  to  shoot  the  mas- 
tiff; but  the  horse-litter,  borne  between  two  horses,  tossed  the  Major- 
General  like  a  dog  in  a  blankett." 

The  earliest  allusion  we  have  found  to  sliding  glass  windows,  if 
indeed  such  are  there  spoken  of,  is  a  passage  from  Pepys's  "  Diary," 
dated  Jan.  23,  1667.  It  reads  thus:  "Another  pretty  thing  was  my 
Lady  Ashly's  speaking  of  the  bad  qualities  of  glass-coaches  ;  among 
others,  the  flying  open  of  the  doors  upon  any  great  shake  :  but  another 
was  that  my  Lady  Peterborough  being  in  her  glass-coach  with  the  glass 
up,  and  seeing  a  lady  pass  by  in  a  coach  whom  she  would  salute,  the 
glass  was  so  clear  that  she  thought  it  had  been  open,  and  so  ran  her 
head  through  the  glass." 

Coaches  had  now  wonderfully  increased,  so  that  at  the  funeral  of 
Sir  W.  Batten  there  were  in  attendance  from  one  to  two  hundred  in 
1667  ;  and  at  the  funeral  of  Sir  William  Davenant,  which  occurred 
the  next  year,  there  were  many  coaches  and  hackneys  in  the  procession 
to  Westminster  Abbey,  which  Pepys  says  "  made  it  look,  methought, 
as  if  it  were  the  buriall  of  a  poor  poet."  The  same  year  there  were,  on 
a  certain  occasion,  "  one  thousand  coaches  "  in  Hyde  Park  at  the  same 
time. 


300  ENGLISH    WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

The  vehicle  we  call  a  chariot  is  mentioned  under  date  of  June  25, 
1667,  by  Pepys  in  the  following  words:  "Up  and  with  Sir  W.  Penn 
in  his  new  chariot  (which  indeed  is  plain,  but  pretty  and  more  fashion- 
able in  shape  than  any  coach  he  hath,  and  yet  do  not  cost  him,  har- 
ness and  all,  above  £32)  to  Whitehall,"  etc.  The  chariot  was  a 
favorite  carriage  with  many  for  over  a  hundred  years,  its  cheapness 
and  lightness,  when  contrasted  with  the  coach,  being  important 
considerations. 

With  the  end  in  view  of  increasing  trade,  the  proprietors  of  the 
stage-coaches  running  to  London  dubbed  them  "flying-coaches,"  thereby 
conveying  the  impression  that  they  were  ftist  traveling.  Hearne 
thus  alludes  to  them  in  his  "  Life  of  Anthony  a  Wood  "  :  "  An.  Dom. 
1669,  April  26  (20  Carolus  II)  Monday  was  the  first  day  that  the 
flying  coach  went  from  Oxford  to  London  in  one  day.  Anthony  a 
Wood  went  in  the  same  Coach,  having  then  a  Boote  on  each  side.^ 
Among  the  six  men  that  went,  Mr.  Eich.  Holloway  of  Oxon  (after- 
wards a  judge)  was  one.  They  then  (according  to  the  Vice  Chancel- 
lor's orders,  stuck  up  in  all  public  places)  entered  into  the  Coache  at 
the  Tavern  Dore  of  All  Souls'  College,  precisely  at  six  of  the  clock  in 
the  morning,  and  at  seven  at  night  they  were  set  down  in  their  Inn  at 
London."  2 

But  now  the  stage-coaches  come  in  for  their  share  of  opposition  from 
"A  Lover  of  his  Country," — supposed  to  have  been  one  John  Cres- 
sett,  —  who  published  a  pamphlet  in  1673  with  the  high-sounding 
title  of  "  The  Grand  Concern  of  England  explained,"  wherein  several 
proposals  are  advanced  for  the  consideration  of  Parliament  and  the 
benefit  of  the  people,  one  of  which  is,  "that  the  multitude  of  stage- 
coaches and  caravans  now  traveling  upon  the  roads  may  all  or  most  of 
them  be  suppressed,  especially  those  within  sixty  miles  of  London, 


'  The  "boote"  alluded  to  appears  to  have  been  projections  at  the  sides,  like  those 
seen  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  coach  (page  266),  made  for  the  accommodation  of  passen- 
gers, who,  when  seated,  sat  back  to  back  in  the  coach.  The  present  construction 
of  the  carriages  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  the  Speaker,  in  which  these  officers  are  so 
placed  as  to  look  out  at  the  side  windows,  may  have  originated  when  "the  booto" 
disappeared.  But,  as  Hearne  observes  (Wood's  Diary,  p.  80),  "Mr.  Speaker's  coach, 
however  cumbrous,  gives  an  adequate  idea  (as  the  editor  of  Bassompierre's  Embassy 
to  England,  in  1G26,  justly  observes)  of  the  vast  machines  of  former  days,  which  were 
rather  closets  on  wheels  than  what  we  would  call  coaches." 

2  Hearne's  Life  of  Anthony  a  Wood,  Oxford,  1772. 


OPPOSITION  TO  STAGE-COACHES.  301 

where  they  are  no  way  necessary,  but  do  great  mischief  by  hindering 
the  breed  of  horses,  the  breed  of  watermen,  and  besides  lessen  his 
Majesty's  revenues."  The  "Lover  of  his  Country"  dwells  with  much 
bitterness  on  the  effeminacy  which  stage-coaches  engender  in  his  Maj- 
esty's subjects,  and  says,  "Hereby  they  become  weary  and  listless 
when  they  ride  a  few  miles,  unwilling  to  get  on  horseback,  and  unable 
to  endure  frosts,  snow,  or  rain,  or  to  lodge  in  the  fields."  That  stage- 
coaches hinder  the  breed  of  horses  is  evident,  "  for  will  any  man  keep 
a  horse  for  himself,  and  another  for  his  man,  all  the  year,  for  to  ride 
one  or  two  journeys  ;  that  at  pleasure,  when  he  hath  occasion,  can  slip 
to  any  place  where  his  business  lies  for  two,  three,  or  four  shillings, 
if  within  twenty  miles  of  London,  and  so  proportionately  into  any  part 
of  England?  No;  there  is  no  man,  unless  some  noble  soul,  that 
scorns  and  abhors  being  confined  to  so  ignoble,  base,  and  sordid  a  way 
of  traveling  as  these  coaches  oblige  him  unto,  and  who  prefers  a  public 
good  before  his  own  ease  and  advantage,  that  will  breed  or  keep  such 
horses.  Neither  are  there  near  as  many  coach-horses  either  bred  or 
kept  in  England  now  as  there  were  saddle-horses  formerly,  there  being 
no  occasion  for  them,  the  kingdom  being  supplied  with  a  far  less 
number.  For  formerly  every  man  that  had  occasion  to  travel  many 
journeys  yearly,  or  to  ride  up  and  down,  kept  horses  for  himself  and 
servants,  and  seldom  rid  without  one  or  two  men;  but  now,  since 
every  man  can  have  a  passage  into  every  place  he  is  to  travel  unto,  or 
to  some  place  within  a  few  miles  of  that  part  he  designs  to  go  unto, 
they  have  left  keeping  of  horses,  and  travel  without  servants ;  and 
York,  Chester,  and  Exeter  stage-coaches,  each  of  them  with  forty 
horses  apiece,  carry  eighteen  passengers  a  week  from  London  to  either 
of  these  places,  and,  in  like  manner,  as  many  in  return  from  these 
places  to  London,  which  came  in  the  whole  to  eighteen  hundred  and 
seventy-two  in  the  year.  Now  take  it  for  granted  that  all  that  are 
carried  from  London  to  these  places  are  the  same  that  are  brought 
back,  yet  are  there  nine  hundred  and  thirty-six  passengers  carried  by 
forty  horses ;  whereas,  were  it  not  for  these  coaches,  at  least  five 
hundred  horses  would  be  required  to  perform  this  work.  Take  the 
short  stages,  within  twenty  or  thirty  miles  of  London :  each  coach, 
with  four  horses,  carries  six  passengers  a  day,  which  are  thirty-six  in 
a  week,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-two  in  a  year.  If  these  coaches 
were  suppressed,  can  any  man  imagine  these  eighteen  hundred  and 


302  ENGLISH  WOBLD  ON  WHEELS. 

seventy-two  passengers  and  their  servants  could  be  carried  by  four 
horses?  Then  reckon  your  coaches  within  ten  miles  of  London,  that 
go  backward  and  forward  every  day,  and  they  carry  double  the  number 
every  year;  and  so,  proportionably,  your  shorter  stages  within  three, 
four,  or  five  miles  of  London.  There  are  stage-coaches  that  go  to 
almost  every  town  within  twenty  or  twenty-five  miles  of  London, 
wherein  passengers  are  carried  at  so  low  rates  that  most  persons  in  and 
about  London  and  Middlesex,  Essex,  Kent,  and  Surrey,  gentlemen, 
merchants,  and  other  traders,  that  have  occasion  to  ride,  do  make  use  of: 
some  to  fairs  and  markets ;  others  to  visit  friends,  and  to  go  to  and 
from  their  country-houses,  or  about  other  business ;  who,  before  these 
coaches  did  set  up,  kept  a  horse  or  two  of  their  own,  but  now  have 
given  over  keeping  the  same.  So  that,  by  computation,  there  are  not 
so  many  horses  by  ten  thousand  kept  now  in  these  parts  as  there  were 
before  stage-coaches  set  up." 

The  "  Lover  of  his  Country,"  in  sympathy  with  our  old  enemy  John 
Taylor,  says  these  stage-coaches  "hinder  the  breeding  of  watermen, 
and  much  discourage  those  that  are  bred,"  by  the  setting  up  of  them 
on  both  sides  of  the  Thames,  as  high  up  as  Maidenhead,  to  down  below 
Gravesend,  "carrying  all  the  letters,  little  bundles,  and  passengers, 
.  .  .  the  consequence  whereof  is  like  to  prove  sad  in  a  short  time, 
unless  speedily  prevented ;  especially  if  these  wars  continue,  and  we 
happen  to  lose  so  many  yearly  of  those  that  are  bred,  as  of  late  years 
we  have  done.  But  if  these  coaches  were  down,  watermen,  as  for- 
merly, Avould  have  work,  and  be  encouraged  to  take  apprentices, 
whereby  their  number  would  greatly  increase." 

The  "Lover  oi  his  Country"  in  the  same  strain  goes  on  to  tell  us  how 
his  Majesty's  revenues  are  lessened:  "Now  four  or  five  travel  in  a 
coach  together,  and  twenty  or  thirty  in  a  caravan  (gentlemen  and 
ladies,  without  any  servants),  consume  little  drink  on  the  road,  yet 
pay  as  much  at  every  inn  as  if  their  servants  were  with  them,  which  is 
the  tapster's  gain  and  his  Majesty's  loss.  .  .  .  Before  these  coaches 
were  set  up,  travelers  rode  on  horseback,  and  men  had  boots  and 
spurs,  saddles,  bridles,  saddle-cloths,  and  good  riding  suits,  coats  and 
cloaks,  stockings  and  hats,  whereby  the  wool  and  leather  of  the  king- 
dom was  consumed,  and  the  poor  people  set  at  work  by  carding  and 
fulling,  and  your  cloth- workers,  drapers,  tailors,  saddlers,  tanners, 
curriers,  shoemakers,  spinners,  lorimers,  and  felt-makers  had  a  good 


STAGE-COACHES  ENCOUBAGE  EXTBAVAGANCE.        303 

employ,  .  .  .  lived  handsomely,  .  .  .  and  helped  with  their  families 
to  consume  the  provisions  and  manufactures  of  the  kingdoms."  Be- 
sides, "Most  gentlemen,  before  they  traveled  in  coaches,  used  to  ride 
with  swords,  belts,  pistols,  holsters,  portmanteaus,  and  hat-cases, 
which  in  these  coaches  they  have  little  occasion  for.  For  when  they 
rode  on  horseback,  they  rode  in  one  suit,  and  carried  another  to  wear 
when  they  came  to  their  journey's  end  or  lay  by  the  way ;  but  in 
coaches  a  silk  suit  and  an  Indian  gown,  with  a  sash,  silk  stockings,  and 
beaver  hats  men  ride  in,  and  carry  no  other  with  them,  because  they 
escape  the  wet  and  dirt,  which  on  horseback  they  cannot  avoid  ; 
whereas,  in  two  or  three  journeys  on  horseback,  these  clothes  and  hats 
were  wont  to  be  spoiled,  which  done  they  were  forced  to  have  new 
very  often,  and  that  increased  the  consumption  of  the  manufactures 
and  the  employment  of  the  manufacturers.  .  .  .  And  if  they  were 
women  that  traveled,  they  used  to  have  safeguards  and  hoods,  side- 
saddles and  pillions,  with  strappings,  saddle  or  pillion  cloths,  which 
for  the  most  part  were  either  laced  or  embroidered,  to  the  making  of 
which  there  went  many  several  trades  ;  seeing  there  is  not  one  saddle, 
with  the  furniture,  but  before  it  is  furnished  there  are  at  least  thirty 
several  trades  have  a  share  in  the  making  thereof,  most  of  which  are 
either  destroyed  or  greatly  prejudiced  by  the  abatement  of  their  trade, 
which  being  bred  unto,  and  having  served  seven  years'  appreuticeshij) 
to  learn,  they  know  not  what  other  course  to  take  for  a  livelihood. 
The  milliners  and  haberdashers,  they  also  sold  more  ribbons, 
gloves,  scarfs,  and  other  things  belonging  to  their  trade ;  the  dust, 
dirt,  and  rain,  and  riding  on  horseback,  spoiling  and  wearing  them  out 
much  more  than  traveling  in  a  coach,  and  on  horseback  these  things 
were  apter  to  be  lost  than  in  a  coach." 

As  numerous  trades  are  concerned  in  producing  the  articles  men- 
tioned by  "A  Lover  of  his  Country,"  he  insists  upon  it  that  all  such 
must  be  injured  by  running  stage-coaches,  "especially  the  country 
trade  all  over  England ;  for,  passage  to  London  being  so  easy,  gentle- 
men come  to  London  oftener  than  they  need,  and  their  ladies  either 
with  them,  or  having  the  conveniences  of  these  coaches,  quickly  follow 
them.  And  when  they  are  there  they  must  be  in  the  mode,  have  all 
the  new  fashions,  buy  all  their  clothes  there,  and  go  to  plays,  balls, 
and  treats,  where  they  get  such  a  habit  of  jollity,  and  a  love  to  gayety 
and  pleasure,  that  nothing  afterwards  in  the  country  will  serve  them. 


304  ENGLISH  WOELD   ON  WHEELS. 

if  ever  they  should  fix  their  minds  to  live  there  again ;  but  they  must 
have  all  from  London,  whatever  it  costs.  .  .  .  Country  ladies 
would  be  as  well  pleased,  provided  they  be  kept  from  London,  as  if 
they  had  all  the  rich  clothes,  modes,  and  fashions,  vainly  and  extrava- 
gantly invented,  and  worn  in  the  city,  .  .  .  and  gentlemen  would 
not  only  save  the  money  they  spend  in  journeys  to  buy  clothes,  but 
have  as  good  as  need  to  be  worn  in  the  country.  .  .  .  Men  do  not 
travel  in  these  coaches  with  less  expense    .     .     .     than  on  horseback." 

Traveling  in  these  stage-coaches  is  neither  beneficial  to  men's  health 
nor  business,  for  what  advantage  is  there  in  being  called  out  of  bed  an 
hour  before  morning  to  be  hurried  from  place  to  place  all  day  in  the 
summer-time,  "  stifled  with  heat  and  choked  with  dust ;  or  in  the 
winter-time,  starving  and  freezing  Avith  cold  or  choked  with  filthy  fogs, 
.  .  .  often  brought  into  their  inns  by  torchlight,  when  it  is  too  late 
to  sit  up  to  get  a  supper ;  and  next  morning  they  are  forced  into  a 
coach  so  early  that  they  can  get  no  breakfast,  ...  to  ride  all  day 
with  strangers,  oftentimes  sick,  ancient,  diseased  persons,  or  young 
children  crying;  to  whose  humors  they  are  obliged  to  be  subject, 
forced  to  bear  with,  and  many  times  are  poisoned  with  their  nasty 
scents,  and  crippled  by  the  crowd  of  the  boxes  and  bundles?  .  .  . 
To  travel  in  rotten  coaches,  and  to  have  their  tackle,  or  perch,  or 
axle-tree  broken,  and  then  to  wait  three  or  four  hours  (sometimes  half 
a  day)  to  have  them  mended,  and  then  to  travel  all  night  to  make 
good  their  stage?  ...  To  be  afii-onted  by  the  rudeness  of  a 
surly,  dogged,  cursing,  ill-natured  coachman ;  necessitated  to  lodge  or 
bait  at  the  worst  inns  on  the  road,  where  there  is  no  accommodation 
fit  for  gentlemen ;  and  this  merely  because  the  owners  of  the  inns  and 
the  coachmen  are  agreed  together  to  cheat  the  guests  ?  .  .  .  Rather 
the  quite  contrary." 

This  "  Lover  of  his  Country "  continues :  "  These  coaches  are  not 
absolutely  necessary  to  any  persons  whatever,"  as  the  sick,  old,  and 
70ung  "  may  ride  in  the  long  wagon-coaches,  which  were  those  that 
were  first  set  up,  and  are  not  now  opposed,  because  they  do  little  or 
no  hurt ;  .  .  .  and  truly,  if  they  be  poor  people  that  are  to  travel, 
it  is  not  fit  they  should  be  encouraged  in  their  pride  and  extravagancy, 
or  sufl'ered  to  ride  amongst  gentlemen  or  like  persons  of  honor,  in  a 
coach  with  four  or  six  horses,  .  .  .  jolting  men's  bodies  or  hur- 
rying them  along,  as  the  running  coaches  do,     .     .     .     kept  by  such 


BAD  ROADS  AND  SLOW  TRAVELING.  o05 

as,  before  the  late  act  for  reducing  the  number  of  hackney-coaches  in 
London  to  four  hundred,  were  owners  of  coaches,  and  drove  hackneys 
there."  These  persons  employ  "  only  a  few  servant-coachmen,  postil- 
ions, and  hostlers,  whom  they  pretend  they  breed  up,  and  make  fit  for 
the  service  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  land ;  a  most  incomparable 
school  to  train  men  up  in  and  fit  them  for  the  gallows  more  likely  than 
to  live  in  sober  families  !  " 

The  iil  condition  of  the  roads  at  this  time,  and  the  consequent  trials 
in  traveling,  are  well  illustrated  by  the  letter  of  Edward  Baker  to  his 
father,  in  1673:  "Honored  Father  —  My  dutie  premised,  &c.,  I  got 
to  Loudon  on  Saturday  last ;  my  journey  was  noe  ways  pleasant,  being 
forced  to  ride  in  the  boote  all  the  waye,  y^  company  y^  came  up  w''' 
mee  were  persons  of  greate  quality,  as  knights  and  ladyes.  My  jour- 
ney's expense  was  30  s.  This  traval  hath  soe  indisposed  mee  y*  I  am 
resolved  never  to  ride  up  againe  in  y®  coatch." 

When  James  II  abdicated  the  throne,  the  fact  was  not  known  in  the 
Orkneys  until  three  months  after  the  event.  Subsequently  the  Duke 
of  Somerset  was  accustomed,  when  he  went  from  London  to  Pentworth, 
to  send  a  letter  beforehand  requesting  "  the  keepers  and  persons  who 
knew  the  holes  and  the  sloughs,  to  come  to  meet  His  Grace,  with 
lanthorns  and  long  poles,  to  help  him  on  his  way."  The  usual  mode 
of  conveyance  at  this  period  for  the  humbler  classes  was  in  long  and 
cumbrous  wagons  or  caravans,  when  they  went  from  town  to  town. 
These  were  drawn  by  four  and  sometimes  five  horses,  carrying  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  passengers.  M.  Soubirere,  a  Frenchman  Avho 
visited  England  about  this  time,  writes,  "That  I  might  not  take  post 
or  again  be  obliged  to  use  the  stage-coach,  I  went  from  Dover  to  Lon- 
don in  a  wagon.  I  was  drawn  by  six  horses  placed  in  a  line,  one  after 
another,  and  driven  by  a  wagoner,  who  walked  by  the  side  of  it.  He 
was  clothed  in  black,  and  appeared  in  all  things  like  another  St. 
George.  He  had  a  brave  monteror  on  his  head,  and  was  a  merry 
fellow,  fancied  he  made  a  figure,  and  seemed  mightily  pleased  with 
himself."  From  this  we  discover  that  the  struggle  for  popularity 
between  the  traveling  wagon  and  the  comparatively  new  stage-coach 
was  protracted  and  severe. 

Coach-making  had  now  become  a  very  important  business  in  the 
metropolis,  where  the  better  class  of  work  was  done.  As  might  be 
expected,  the  craft  organized  a  society,  which  was  incorporated  May 


30G 


ENGLISH   WOELD    ON   WHEELS. 


21,  1677.  On  the  17th  of  July  followmg,  a  coat-of-arms  ^  was  granted 
to  the  Worshipful  Company  of  Coach  and  Coach-harness  Makers  by  Sir 
William  Dugdale,  Knt.  Garter,  and  Sir  Henry  St.  George  Norray,  in 
the  twenty-second  year  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  of  which  a  facsimile 
is  presented.  The  benefactions  to  this  society  date  as  far  back  as 
1703,  as  we  learn  from  a  perusal  of  the  records  preserved  at  the  hall 


Coach-makers'  Arms,   1667. 

of  the  company  in  Noble  Street,  Foster  Lane,  London.  Since  then 
new  arms  have  been  adopted  by  this  ancient  guild  somewhat  differing 
from  the  original.  A  second  society,  "The  Master  Coach-builders' 
Benevolent  Institution,"  was  organized  Jan.  22,  1856;  and  a  third, 
"The  Operative  Coach-makers'  Benevolent  Society,"  in  1860.  The 
objects  of  these  modern  institutions  are  sufficiently  indicated  in  the 
titles. 


'  These  are  thus  described  in  Edmonson's  Work  on  Heraldry,  London,  1780  :  — 
"Arms. — Az.  cheveron  between  three  coaches  or.  Crest.  —  On  a  wreath-cloud 
proper ;  thereon  the  figure  of  Phoebus  driving  the  chariot  of  the  Sun  or.  drawn  by  four 
horses  or.  harnessed,  reined,  and  bridled  of  the  second.  Supporters.  —  Two  horses 
or.  harnessed  and  bridled  fa.  studded  or.  garnished  gu.  housings  az.  fringed  and 
purfled  of  the  third :  each  horse  adorned  on  the  head  with  a  plume  of  four  feathers  of 
the  following  colors,  viz.  or.  ar.  az.  and  gu.     Motto.  —  Szirgit  Post  nuhila  Phoebus." 


PHILOSOriTEE    BOYLE   ON    COACH-BIDING. 


307 


Some  idea  of  the  cost  of  ii  chariot  a  few  years  later  may  be  learned 
from  an  entry  found  in  Sir  William  Dugdale's  "  Diary,"  the  gentleman 
mentioned  in  the  preceding  paragraph.  It  stands  thus  :  "1G81.  Payd 
to  Mr.  Mears,  a  coach-maker  in  St.  Martins-Lane,  for  a  little  chariot, 
which  I  then  sent  into  the  countrie,  £23.  13s.  OcZ.  [about  $161],  and 
for  a  cover  of  canvass,  £1  ;  also,  for  harness  for  two  horses,  £4." 

The  comforts  and  conveniences  of  a  coach  are  thus  set  forth  by  the 
philosopher  Boyle,  in  1682  :  "As  fast  as  this  coach  goes,  I  sit  in  it  so 
much  at  ease,  that  whilst  its  rapid  motion  makes  others  suspect  that  I 
am  running  for  a  wager,  this  lazy  posture  and  this  soft  seat  do  almost 
as  much  invite  me  to  rest  as  if  I  were  a-bed. 

"  The  hasty  wheels  strike  fire  out  of  the  flints  they  happen  to  run 
over,  and  yet  this  self-same  swiftness  of  these  wheels,  which,  were  I 
under  them,  would  make  them  crush  my  bones  themselves  into  splin- 
ters, if  not  into  a  jelly,  now  I  am  seated  above  their  reach,  serves  but 
to  carry  me  the  faster  towards  my  journey's  end." 

Some  idea  of  the  style  in  which  coaches  were  built  in  1688  may  be 
obtained  from  an  inspection  of  the  following  engraving,  copied  from  a 
rare  print  by  Romaine  de  Hooge,  in  which  William  III  is  represented 


Coach  and  Six  of  1688. 

as  making  his  entry  into  the  royal  palace  at  Whitehall  in  "  a  coach  and 
six"  for  the  first  time,  with  a  man  outside  on  the  box,  and  a  postilion 
astride  one  of  the  leaders.  In  this  drawing  "the  boote  "  at  the  side 
still  appears,  as  it  did  in  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  with  a  female 
seated  sideways,  and  riding  "crab  fashion,"  as  John  Taylor  sarcasti- 
cally terms  it.     This  coach  is  described  as  having  been  mounted  on 


308 


ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


springs,  although  such  do  not  appear  in  the  drawing.  The  dickey-seat 
now  appears  for  the  first  time,  whicli,  besides  accommodating  tlie 
driver,  carried  inside  a  liammer,  nails,  pincers,  ropes,  and  such  other 
articles  as  were  required  in  case  of  accident  for  repairing  the  vehicle. 
Afterwards  "  the  hammercloth "  was  added  in  order  to  hide  the  box, 
the  unsightly  receptacle  of  remedies  for  broken  wheels,  shivered  pan- 
els, and  other  damaged  portions  of  the  coach,  caused  by  bad  roads, 
and  perhaps  some  mismanagement  on  the  part  of  inexperienced 
coachmen. 

Near  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  (1696)  the  coach  had 
assumed  the  form  represented  in  the  next  engraving,  which  is  copied 
from  a  well-executed  copj)erplate  print  in  the  British  Museum.     Here 


Coach  of  1696.  — From   a  Print   in   the   British  Museum. 

we  find  that  a  foot-board  for  the  driver  is  provided.  The  body, 
although  designed  for  something  nice,  is  less  graceful  in  the  lines  than 
the  former.  The  sun-curtains  are  now  seen  for  the  first  time,  likewise 
the  standards  as  supports  to  the  thorough-braces  on  which  the  body  is 
suspended.  The  artist  has  not  only  delineated  the  carvings,  but  like- 
wise shown  us  the  nail-heads  used  to  secure  the  leather-jacket  to  the 
frame-work. 

In  striking  contrast  Avith  the  preceding  is  the  carriage  represented 
in  the  next  figure,  the  original  of  which  is  owned  by  the  Earl  of  Darn- 
ley,  who  lent  it  for  the  International  Exhibition  in  South  Kensington, 
London,  where  we  saw  it  in  1873.  It  is  reported  to  have  been  a 
present  to  the  older  Earl  from  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  during  her  l)rief 
reign.     For  many  years  it  has  been  carefully  preserved  at  Penshurst 


EABL   OF  DABNLEY'S   CHABIOT.  309 

ill  Kent.  It  is  without  doubt  a  production  of  a  much  later  date  than 
the  age  of  Elizabeth  (probably  about  1700),  in  whose  time  Mary  was 
beheaded,  and  has  superior  claims  to  beauty,  both  in  model  and  finish, 
over  anything  shown  during  her  reign.     The  elaborately  carved  spokes, 


GnARIOT     OF    THE     EaKIj     OF    DARNLEY. 

standards,  and  moldings  of  the  body  must  have  severely  taxed  the 
patience  and  ingenuity  of  the  artist  in  "getting  it  up."  Instead  of  the 
box,  this  has  a  "standee"  seat  for  the  driver,  and,  as  Fairholt  observes, 
"is  a  good  example  of  the  sort  of  carriage  then  used  by  the  nobility. 
Nothing,"  he  continues,  "  can  exceed  the  finish  and  beauty  of  the 
decorations ;  the  hinges  have  projecting  ornaments,  terminating  in 
busts  of  the  Roman  emperors ;  and  the  carving  and  other  ornaments 
have  a  finish  that  could  not  be  excelled."  Although  an  improvement 
in  shape  and  size  is  here  visible,  yet  "there  is  an  overruling  clumsi- 
ness about  the  whole  which  contrasts  very  forcibly  with  the  more 
modern  coach."  ^ 

In  1698  a  pamphlet  appeared,  entitled  "An  Elegy  on  the  Death  of 
Trade,  by  a  Eelation  of  the  Deceased,"  in  which  appears  the  following 
curious  mixture  :  — 

"  There  were  Gun-smiths  and  Guttlers, 
And  Founders  and  Suttlers, 
And  Coach-makers  a  great  many  : 
There  were  Coblers  and  Tinkers, 
Those  honest  ale-drinkers, 
And  Shoemakers,  too,  more  than  any  " ; 

'  Loudon  Art  Union  Journal,  1847,  p.  160. 


310  ENGLISH    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 

showing  that  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  trade  was  at  a 
low  ebb. 

In  December,  1703,  we  have  a  picture  of  the  times  related  by 
Markland  in  the  "  Archseologia " :  "Charles,  King  of  Spain,  slept  at 
Pentworth,  on  his  way  from  Portsmouth  to  Windsor,  and  Prince 
George  of  Denmark  went  to  meet  him  there.  We  set  out  (as  one  of 
the  attendants  relates)  and  did  not  get  out  of  the  coach  (save  only 
when  we  were  overturned  or  stuck  fast  in  the  mire)  till  we  arrived  at 
our  journey's  end.  It  was  hard  service  for  the  Prince  to  set  foui-teen 
hours  in  the  coach  that  day,  without  eating  anything,  and  passing 
through  the  worst  ways  I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  We  were  thrown  but 
once,  indeed,  in  going,  but  both  our  coach  (which  was  the  leading  one) 
and  his  Highness's  body-coach  would  have  suffered  very  often  if  the 
nimble  boors  of  Sussex  had  not  frequently  pushed  it  or  supported  it 
with  their  shoulders,  from  Godalming  almost  to  Pentworth ;  and  the 
nearer  we  approached  to  the  Duke's  house,  the  more  unaccessible  it 
seemed  to  be.  The  last  nine  miles  of  the  way  cost  us  six  hours'  time 
to  conquer  them,  and,  indeed,  we  had  never  done  it  if  our  good  master 
had  not  several  times  lent  us  a  pair  of  horses  out  of  his  own  coach, 
whereby  we  were  enabled  to  trace  out  the  way  for  him."  His  Grace's 
park  and  the  common  roads  were  about  alike  impassable. 

We  are  told  that  the  hoop-skirts  of  the  ladies  had  attained  such 
enormous  dimensions  in  1707  as  to  claim  the  notice  of  the  satirists  and 
others.  It  is  related  in  a  periodical  of  the  time  (satirically,  of  course) 
that  "for  the  service  of  ladies  wearing  hoops,  one  Bill  Jingle,  coach- 
maker,  has  built  a  round  chair,  in  the  form  of  a  lantern,  six  yards  and 
a  half  in  circumference,  with  a  stool  in  the  middle  of  it,  so  as  to 
receive  the  passenger  by  opening  in  two  in  the  middle,  and  closing 
mathematically  when  she  is  seated."  Besides  the  foregoing  useful 
invention.  Bill  Jingle  invented  another  coach  into  which  the  hooped 
ladies  of  that  day  were  admitted  from  the  top.  "  A  lady's  woman  "  in 
her  hooped  petticoat  was  even  let  down  from  a  balcony  and  drawn  up 
again  by  pulleys,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  "  my  lady,"  and  all  who 
beheld  the  interesting  scene. 

At  this  time  a  writer  in  "  The  Tattler "  complains  that  "  the  horses 
and  slaves  of  the  rich  take  up  the  whole  street ;  while  the  peripatetics 
are  very  glad  to  watch  an  opportunity  to  whisk  cross  a  passage,  very 
thankful  that  we  are  not  run  over  for  interrupting  the  machine  that 


8CAVENGEBS   TO   CLEAR   THE  STREETS.  311 

carries  in  it  a  person  neither  more  handsome,  wise,  nor  valiant  than 
the  meanest  of  us.  For  this  reason,  were  I  to  propose  a  tax,  it  should 
certainly  be  upon  coaches  and  chairs ;  for  no  man  living  can  assign  a 
reason  why  one  man  should  have  half  a  street  to  carry  him  at  his  ease,  and 
perhaps  only  in  pursuit  of  pleasures,  when  as  good  a  man  as  himself 
wants  room  for  his  own  person  to  pass  upon  the  most  necessary  and  urgent 
occasions.  Until  such  an  acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  public,  I  shall 
take  upon  me  to  vest  certain  rights  in  the  scavengers  of  the  cities  of 
London  and  Westminster,  to  take  the  horses  and  servants  of  all  such 
as  do  not  become,  or  deserve  such  distinctions,  into  their  peculiar 
custody.  The  offenders  themselves  I  shall  allow  safe-conduct  to  their 
places  of  abode  in  carts  of  said  scavengers,  but  their  horses  shall  be 
mounted  by  their  footmen  and  sent  into  the  service  abroad ;  and  I 
shall  take  this  opportunity,  in  the  first  place,  to  recruit  the  regiment 
of  my  good  old  friend,  the  brave  and  honest  Sylvius."  This  writer 
further  says,  "I  have  given  directions  to  all  the  coach-makers  and 
coach-painters  in  town  to.  bring  me  in  lists  of  their  several  customers  ; 
and  doubt  not,  but  with  comparing  the  orders  of  each  man,  in  the 
placing  his  arms  on  the  door  of  his  chariot,  as  well  as  the  words, 
devices,  and  ciphers  to  be  fixed  on  them,  to  make  a  collection  which 
shall  let  us  into  the  nature,  if  not  the  history  of  mankind,  more  use- 
fully than  the  curiosities  of  any  medalist  in  Europe."' 

The  next  illustration  is  copied  from  a  print  representing  a  procession 
of  the  members  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  to  St.  Paul's  Cathedral 


State   Coach   of  1713. 

in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  July  7,  1713,  to  return  public  thanks- 
giving to  God  for  the  Peace  of  Utrecht.  It  is  supposed  to  represent 
the  fashions  in  coaches  at  the  time  "  when  stateliness  was  chiefly  con- 
sidered, and  as  many  footmen  carried  behind  as  could  be  conveniently 


312 


ENGLISH   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


borne;  two,  three,  and  four  of  these  useless  incumbrances  generally 
appeared,  while  on  state  occasions  the  absurd  number  of  six  hung  on 
behind,  clasping  each  other's  waists ;  an  uncomfortable  mob,  and  a 
living  satire  on  the  pride  which  hired  and  supported  such  cumbrous 
adjuncts." 

The  next  illustration,  taken  from  the  same  print  as  the  foregoing,  is  a 
singular  one  in  many  respects.  It  looks  very  much  like  an  attempt  to 
imitate  the  sedan-chair  we  have  previously  considered  in  these  pages. 
The  carriage-body  is  thrown  back  upon  the  perch  in  a  singular  manner, 


Sedan   Chariot   of   1713. 


which  must  have  rendered  it  a  hard  thing  to  travel  in.  The  coachman 
is  more  to  be  envied  than  either  of  the  other  attendants,  he  alone  being 
furnished  with  a  comfortable  seat.  Not  content  with  two,  the  stateli- 
ness  of  the  occupant  requires  no  less  than  five  footmen,  — four  behind, 
and  one  perched  on  the  front  in  a  rather  uncomfortable  position. 
Could  this  circumstance  —  the  perching  of  a  footman  on  the  reach  — 
have  given  to  it  the  name  of  a  "perch,"  as  this  portion  of  the  vehicle 
is  frequently  called? 

Queen  Anne  was  accustomed  to  go  year  after  year  to  congratulate 
the  Duke  of  Marlborough  on  his  successes,  and  in  processions,  after 
the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  headed  by  their  Speaker, 
the  Masters  of  Chancery,  the  Judges,  and  the  Peers  of  the  realm, 
in  these  low  hanging  coaches,  to  open  Parliament,  as  well  as  in 
the  public  processions  to  St.  Paul's.  One  of  these  pageants  is  thus 
described:  "Then  came  the  Queen  in  her  state  equipage,  drawn  by 
eight  horses,  and  having  by  her  side  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  the 
wife  of  the  Conqueror,  and  her  Majesty's  early  and  bosom  friend. 
The  streets  through  which  the  procession  passed  were  lined  by  the 
Westminster  militia  and  the  city  trained  bands;   the  balconies  and 


MABLBOEOUGH  DISOWNED  BF  ANNE.  313 

windows  were  hung  with  fine  carpets  and  tapestries,  and  crowded  with 
spectators.  Tlie  Queen  was  received  at  St.  Paul's  by  the  Peers,  and 
preceded  into  the  choir  by  the  great  man  himself,  Marlborough,  curry- 
ing the  sword  of  state." 

Tavo  years  later  Queen  Anne  went  to  St.  Paul's  again  for  a  sim- 
ilar purpose ;  and  very  soon  after  disowned  the  man  to  whom  she 
owed  so  much,  dismissed  him  from  all  employment,  and  left  him  as 
helpless  as  it  was  possible  to  meet  the  charges  of  peculation  which  his 
enemies  had  brought  against  him.  The  "  dear  Mrs.  Freeman,"  as  the 
Queen  delighted  to  call  the  Duchess  (she  herself  assuming  the  name 
of  Mrs.  Morley) ,  was  now  as  much  hated  as  she  had  been  previously 
loved,  though  with  some  reason :  there  is  no  doubt  the  masculine- 
minded  spouse  of  Marlborough  endeavored  to  advance  his  interests  and 
the  interests  of  his  party  with  too  high  a  hand,  and  in  a  kind  of  reckless 
forgetfulness  of  her  misfortunes  and  very  decided  political  principles. 

The  poet  Gay  has  left  us  a  vivid  picture  of  some  of  the  common 
accidents  in  the  reign  of  this  queen,  when  cartmen  were  the  greatest 
enemies  of  coaches.     He  says  in  the  "  Trivia  "  :  — 

"I've  seen  a  beau,  iu  some  ill-fated  hour, 
When  o'er  the  stones  choked  kennels  swell  the  shower, 
In  gilded  chariot  loll ;  he  with  disdain 
Views  spattered  passengers  all  drenched  in  rain  ; 
With  mud  filled  high,  the  rumbling  cart  draws  near. 
Now  rule  thy  prancing  steeds,  laced  charioteer  ! 
The  dustman  lashes  on  with  spiteful  rage  ; 
His  ponderous  spokes  thy  painted  wheels  engage, — 
Crushed  is  thy  pride,  down  falls  the  shrieking  beau, 
The  shabby  pavement  crystal  fragments  strow  ; 
Black  floods  of  mire  the  embroidered  coat  disgrace, 
And  mud  enwraps  the  honors  of  his  face." 

And  again,  — 

"  Where  a  dim  gleam  the  paly  lantern  throws 
O'er  the  mid-pavement,  heapy  rubbish  grows, 
Or  arched  vaults  their  gaping  jaws  extend. 
Or  the  dark  caves  to  common  sewers  descend  ; 
Oft,  by  the  winds,  extinct  the  signal  lies, 
Or,  smothered  in  the  glimmering  socket,  dies  — 
Ere  night  has  half  roU'd  round  her  ebon  throne. 
In  the  wide  gulf  the  shaUered  coach,  o'erthrown. 
Sinks  with  the  snorting  steeds  ;  the  reins  are  broke, 
And  from  the  crackling  axle  flies  the  spoke." 


314 


ENGLISH   WOELD   ON  WHEELS. 


The  kind  of  carriage  used  for  traveling  in  the  times  of  George  I  and 
II  may  be  seen  below,  drawn  by  six  horses,  the  foremost  of  which  is 
ridden  by  a  postilion  with  heavy  jack-boots  and  spurs.  The  form  of 
the  body  is  similar  to  the  one  preceding  the  last,  and  like  it  has  foot- 
men perched  up  behind.     A  footman  precedes  the  carriage,  having  in 


Carriage  of  the  Aristocract.— Temp.  Georg 


his  hand  a  gold-headed  cane.  These  footmen,  attendant  upon  the 
English  aristocracy  under  the  pretense  of  clearing  the  way,  are  said  to 
have  l)een  copied  from  Oriental  usages.  They  were  gayly  attired  in 
clothes  of  value,  and  an  amusing  tale  is  related  of  a  smart  chap  who 
"came  it  over"  the  Duke  of  Queensbury  by  applying  to  him  for  a 
situation,  and  having  been  supplied  with  a  suit  of  clothes,  he  after- 
wards gave  his  unsuspecting  Grace  a  fine  specimen  of  his  fitness  for 
the  situation  he  had  assumed  by  running  up  Piccadilly  until  he  fairly 
outstripped  the  horses,  and  disappeared  in  the  crowd  with  the  garments 
he  wore.i  This  example  is  what  is  called  "a  coach  and  six,"  meaning 
a  coach  drawn  by  six  horses.  The  extra  horses  were  added  for  show, 
as  well  as  the  attendants. 

Though  built  somewhat  lighter  than  formerly,  these  coaches  were 
an  improvement  over  those  preceding  them,  but  still  very  clumsy,  and 
calculated  to  last  a  long  time.  In  fact,  some  of  these  were,  in  the 
strictest  sense,  "heirlooms,"  remaining  a  long  time  in  the  family,  and 
kept  in  repair  for  its  use.^  The  antiquary.  Brown  Willis,  had  one  of 
these,  which  a  contemporary  writer  thus  describes  :  "  The  chariot  of 
Mr.  Willis  was  so  singular  that  from  it  he  was  himself  called  '  The  Old 


•  "These  men,"  says  Fairholt,  "filled  the  place  of  the  modern  coach-dog;,  beinj? 
about  as  useful,  and  not  quite  as  ornamental.  They  disappeared  in  the  reign  of 
George  the  Third."  —  London  A7-t  Journal,  1847,  p.  245. 

^  A  correspondent  of  The  N.  Y.  Coach-maker's  Magazine,  George  N.  Hooper,  Esq., 
Coach-maker  to  her  Majesty,  says,  "The  best  London  carriages  are  not  only  very 
highly  finished,  but  are  so  soundly  put  together  that  many  are  kept  in  use  that  have 
been  running  (with  periodical  repairs)  twenty-five,  thirty,  and  even  forty  years." 


SEDAN-CABT  FOR  PLEASUliE-RIDING.  315 

Chariot.'  It  was  his  wedding-chariot,  and  had  his  arms  on  ])rass  plates 
about  it,  not  unlike  a  coffin  painted  black."'  Dr.  Darrell  humorously 
satirized  it  in  one  stanza,  which  ran  thus  ;  — 

"  His  car  himself  he  did  provide 
To  stand  in  double  stead, 
That  it  should  carry  him  alive, 
And  bury  him  when  dead." 

From  a  desire  of  introducing  something  lighter,  the  sedan-cart  was 
invented,  capable  of  being  drawn  by  a  single  liorse^  although,  viewed 
from  a  modern  standpoint,  it  would  appear  clumsy  enough.     This  was 

designed  for  the  use  of  a  . _™, 

single  person,  in  times  when  "^^  I  |1"l  S  fli 

crinoline  did  not  sprca(3.  it-      _       „_(OK  /        IH  I'  I 

self  quite  as  much  as  it  has  ^k^^^*  ^  //  ^^^ jll 

since,  but  two  might  be  got    ^^^E^-r^^^^i   //       /v^R^^N 
in  by  squeezing.    The  body,       r^^^C^^^^JJ^^^  ^^^==q /^^^^^  v)  j 
as  may  be  seen,  is  peculiar       nj   \1       Z^^^\(  ^^i        ~^^SJ^^^  rj^^ 
in  form,  accommodated  to  Xn.  ^^^^^ — '^^^jii^^^ 

a  reclining  position.     This  Sedan-cart. 

reclining  position  was  originally  obtained  in  hanging  off  the  body,  but 
here  it  is  furnished  by  accommodating  construction.  Hung  off  without 
springs,  on  two  wheels,  placed  far  from  the  horse  and  subjected  to  his 
amblings,  this  vehicle  must  have  proved  a  miserable  pZeaswre-carriage. 
The  driver  has  about  the  best  seat,  and  for  invalids  to  ride  in,  the 
vehicle,  we  should  judge,  would  be  certain  death.  They  arc  said  to 
have  been  used  by  the  middle  classes  only. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  roads  in  the  country  that  sedan-chairs 
were  used  in  place  of  carriages,  and  were  even  fashional)lo  among  the 
nobility  and  gentry  of  London,  where  they  were  used  in  visiting- 
public  places  of  amusement  and  in  making  social  calls  upon  their 
friends.  For  these  purposes  they  were  in  much  demand,  although  the 
great  number  produced  much  inconvenience  in  the  crowded  streets  of 
cities,  hy  the  disputes  for  precedence,  which  were  often  of  the  most 
violent  nature.  An  example  of  this  kind  may  l)e  found  in  "  Mist's 
Journal"  of  Saturday,  July  8,  1721,  which  shows  that  manners  have 
changed  somewhat  within  a  century  and  a  quarter.  We  read  that, 
"On  Thursday  se'nnight  the  Eight  Honorable  the  Lord  Carteret,  one 
of  her  Majesty's  principal  Secretaries  of  State,  passing  through  St. 


316  ENGLISH  WOBLD  ON  WHEELS. 

James's  Square  in  a  chair,  was  met  by  the  Lady  Harley  in  another, 
when,  a  dispute  arising  between  the  footmen  about  giving  the  way, 
they  immediately  came  to  blows,  and  the  chairman  and  footmen  being 
engaged  with  their  poles  and  sticks,  one  of  them  struck  his  lordship  as 
he  was  getting  out  of  his  chair,  but  whether  accidentally  or  designedly 
wo  know  not.  In  the  mean  time  that  person  is  committed  to  Newgate, 
and  three  of  his  brethren  are  bound  over  to  the  next  session." 

In  1731  the  English  government  imposed  a  tax  on  the  owners  of 
coaches.     Then  again  rhyme  was  invoked  to  the  rescue  :  — 

"  Before  Bohemian  Anne  was  queen, 
Astride  their  steeds  were  ladies  seen  ; 
And  good  Queen  Bess  to  Pauls  I  wot, 
Full  oft  aside  has  jogg'd  on  trot : 
Beaus  then  could  foot  it  through  all  weather, 
And  nothing  fear  but  wear  of  leather. 
But  now  (so  luxury  decrees) 
The  polished  age  rolls  on  at  ease  ; 
Coach,  chariot,  chaise,  berline,  landau, 
(Machines  the  ancients  never  saw), 
Indulge  our  gentler  sons  of  war. 
Who  ne'er  will  mount  triumphant  car. 
The  carriage  marks  the  peer's  degree, 
And  almost  tells  the  doctor's  fee  ; 
Bears  every  thriving  child  of  art :  — 
Ev'n  thieves  to  Tyburn  claim  their  cart. 

"  O  cruel  law  !  replete  with  pain, 
That  makes  us  use  our  legs  again  : 
Or,  half  our  pain  obliged  to  lack. 
Bids  us  bestride  the  others  back. 
A  skulky  stage  would  suit  with  many, 
Who  cannot  reach  an  eighteen  penny. 
Back  must  enhance  the  price  of  pills, 
Or  drive  again  —  on  pair  of  wheels. 
The  goodmate  too  will  be  to  seek 
Who  mounts  his  chariot  twice  a  week  : 
Or  if  the  Hackney  man  should  grumble, 
I  fear  our  Phaeton  must  tumble. 
O  cruel  law  !  to  raise  the  fare 
Of  Christmas  turkey,  chine  and  hare  : 
The  'vails  on  wages  to  retrench 
Of  county  serving  man  or  wench, 
Who  twice  a  year  ride  up  and  down, 
Betwixt  their  native  place  and  town. 


DEAN  SWIFT  ON  SEDAN-CHAIBS. 


317 


"  O  cruel  tax  !  who  must  not  say  I 
Which  only  those  who  will  —  need  pay  ?  " 

The  following  advertisement  appears  in  the  "Gentlemen's  Magazine" 
for  1731:  "Married  the  Rev.  Mr.  Eoger  Waina,  of  York,  about  2(3 
years  of  age,  to  a  Lincolnshire  lady  upwards  of  eighty,  with  whom  he 
is  to  have  £8,000  in  money,  £300  per  annum,  and  a  coach-and-four 
during  life,  only." 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  given  a  sedan-chair  from  Sandys's 
"  Travels,"  and  in  this,  on  page  293, 
added  another  from  "  Coach  and 
Sedan."  It  may  interest  the  reader 
to  compare  the  much-improved 
sedan  with  those  aforementioned,  i 
The  sedan  of  1750  was  richly  deco- 
rated with  brass  chasings,  moldings, 
carvings,  and  tassels.  It  is  much 
lighter,  too,  than  previously  made, 
and  more  artistic  taste  is  shown  in  the  form  of  the  body.  This  was 
in  use  for  many  years.  Probably  it  is  to  this  chair  Dean  Swift 
alludes,  when  he  says, — 

"  Box'd  in  his  chair,  the  beau  impatient  sits. 
While  sprouts  run  clattering  o'er  the  roof  by  fits, 
And  ever  and  anon,  with  frightful  din. 
The  leather  sounds  —  he  trembles  from  within  !  " 

The  chair  here  depicted  was  for  private  use,  furnished  with  crimson 
velvet  cushions  and  damask  curtains,  and  the  chairmen  generally  were 
sturdy,  athletic  Milesians,  reveling,  where  employed  by  the  aristoc- 
racy, in  all  the  finery  of  embroidered  coats,  epaulettes,  cocked  hats, 
and  feathers.  The  public  sedans  were  of  a  more  democratic  caste, 
trimmed  with  plain  leather,  secured  by  brass  nails,  as  may  be  seen  in 
Hogarth's  plate  of  "The  Rake's  Progress,"  where  he  is  represented  as 
going  to  a  levee  at  St.  James's.     "The  hackney^  chairmen  exerted  the 


ENG1.ISH    Sedan-chaik,    1750. 


*  It  is  related  that  Charles  I,  on  his  return  from  Spain,  where  he  had  gone  on  a 
courting  expedition  to  the  fair  princess,  daughter  of  Philip  IV,  brought  back  with  him 
three  sedan-chairs  of  very  curious  Avorkmauship. 

^  As  early  as  1744,  when  there  were  only  six  regular  stage-coaches  in  all  England, 
light-bodied  chariots  wei'e  advertised  in  London,  "fit  either  for  town  or  country,  car- 
riages on  springs  beginning  then  to  supersede  the  wagon-like  coaches  of  former  days." 
—  Note  to  Lady  Rervey's  Letters,  p.  57. 


318 


ENGLISH   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


power  of  the  strong  arm,  and  were  often  daring  enough,  as  a  body,  to 
influence  the  fate  of  Westminster  and  Middlesex  elections  in  the  terror 
which  they  produced  with  fist  and  bludgeon.  But  they  are  gone.  No 
Belinda  now  may  be  proud  of  'two  pages  and  a  chair.'  They  glide 
not  among  the  chariot-wheels  at  a  levee  or  in  a  drawing-room ;  the 
club  wants  them  not.  They  have  retired  to  Bath  and  Oxford.  We 
believe  there  is  one  chair  still  lingering  about  May  Fair,  but  the  chair- 
men must  be  starving,  and  the  Society  of  Antiquarians  ought  to  l:)uy 
the  relic."  i 

Below  may  be  seen  about  the  last  type  of  an  extremely  old-fashioned 
coach.  After  this  (1750)  they  were  made  according  to  an  improved 
and  much  lighter  pattern,  under  various  names,  which  seem  in  this 
respect  to  have  rivaled  France.     Instead  of  being  made  close,  some 


English    Private   Coach,   1750. 

of  them  were  open  and  airy,  suited  to  summer  travel.^  That  which 
particularly  claims  notice  in  the  engraving  is  the  profuse  and  elaborate 
carving  on  the  panels  and  quarters  of  the  body.  This  coach  appears 
to  have  been  hung  off"  without  a  perch,  very  low  to  the  ground,  the 
hammer-cloth  seat  maintaining  its   dignity ;    and  although  the   foot- 


'  London  Once  a  Week. 

*  This  was  about  the  time  turnpike  roads  were  introduced  into  England,  effecting 
great  changes  in  the  mode  of  traveling.  "A  tradition  exists  in  Scotland,  as  I  am 
informed  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  that  chairs  or  chariots  were  first  introduced  into  that 
country  in  1745.  The  nobility  were  accustomed  to  travel  previously  in  A^ehicles  resem- 
bling Noah's  ark,  and  the  gentry  on  horseback;  but  in  that  memorable  year  the  Prince 
of  Ilesse  appeared  in  a  carriage  of  the  description  just  mentioned,  to  the  admiration 
of  all  Scotchmen,  who  regarded  it  as  a  coach  cut  in  half."  —  Brkwster's  EncyclopcBdia, 
Art.  "Carriage." 


ANNIHILATION  OF  FBICTION.  319 

men  are  absent,  the  construction  of  the  coach  leads  to  the  conchision 
that  they  must  be  around  somewJiei^e. 

The  following  announcement  is  taken  from  a  periodical  of  the  time  : 
"This  day  [1750]  a  remarkable  carriage  set  out  from  Aldergate-street 
for  Birmingham,  from  which  town  it  arrived  on  Thursday  last,  full  of 
passengers  and  luggage,  without  useing  coomb,  or  any  oily,  unctuous, 
or  any  liquid  matter  whatever,  to  the  wlicels  or  axle,  its  construction 
being  such  as  to  render  all  such  helps  useless.  The  inventor  has 
caused  to  be  engraven  on  the  wheels,  Friction  Annihilated;  and  is 
very  positive  that  the  carriage  will  continue  to  go  as  long  and  as  easy, 
if  not  longer  and  easier,  without  greasing,  than  any  of  the  ordinary 
stage  carriages  will  do  with  it.  This  invention,  if  really  answerable 
in  practice,  is  perhaps  the  most  useful  improvement  in  mechanics  that 
this  century  has  produced." 

Our  next  illustration  is  a  drawing  of  an  English  single-horse  gig  of 
1754,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  original  of  the  more  modern  Stan- 
hopes, tilburies,  whiskies,  Den- 

netts,  and  buggies,  of  which  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  speak 
hereafter.  Here  the  old  gentle- 
man is  seen  jogging  leisurely 
along,  with  his  horse  at  a  trot- 
ting gait.  The  body  of  the  gig, 
rude  in  desiOTi,  is  huno;  off  on 
leather  straps  pendent  from  iron 
braces  at  the  l)ack,  springs  not  yet  having  become  fashionable  in  two- 
wheeled  carriages. 

In  August  of  the  same  year  appeared  an  advertisement  stating 
"That  a  handsome  Machine,  with  steel  springs  for  the  ease  of  passen- 
gers and  the  Conveniency  of  the  Country,  began  on  Monday,  the  8th 
of  July,  to  set  off  from  Chelmsford  every  morning  at  7  o'clock,  Sun- 
day excepted,  to  the  Bull  Inn,  Leaden  Hall  Street,  to  be  there  by  12 
o'clock,  and  return  the  same  day  at  2  o'clock,  and  to  be  at  Chelmsford 
by  7  in  the  evening.  Fresh  horses  will  be  taken  at  the  White  Hart  at 
Brentwood  and  the  Green  Man  at  Ilford.  To  be  performed,  if  God 
permits,  by  Tyrrell  and  Hughes." 

About  this  time  the  following  inventor's  advertisement  appeared : 
"  All  the  Nobility  and  Gentry   [in  England]   may  have  the  carriages 


320  ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

of  their  Coaches  made  new,  or  the  old  ones  altered  after  this  new 
invention,  at  reasonal^le  Rates  ;  and  Hackney  and  stage-coachmen  may 
have  Licences  from  the  Patentee,  Mr.  John  Green,  and  M.v.  William 
Dockura  his  partner,  at  the  rate  of  12d.  per  week,  to  drive  the  Roads 
and  streets,  some  of  which  having  this  week  begun,  and  may  be  known 
from  the  common  Coaches  by  the  words  Patent  Coaches,  being  over 
both  doors  in  carved  letters.  These  Coaches  are  so  hung  as  to  render 
them  easier  for  the  Passenger  and  less  labor  to  the  Horses  —  The 
Gentleman's  Coaches  turning  in  narrow  Streets  and  Lanes  in  as  little 
or  less  room  than  any  French  carriage  with  Crane-neck  and  not  one 
third  part  of  the  charge.  The  manner  of  the  Coachman's  sitting  is  more 
convenient,  and  the  motion  is  like  that  of  a  Sedan,  being  free  from 
that  tossing  and  jolting  to  which  other  Coaches  are  liable  over  rough 
and  broken  Roads,  Pavements  or  Kennels.  These  great  conveniences 
(besides  others)  are  Invitations  sufficient  for  all  Persons  (that  love 
their  own  ease  and  would  save  their  horses'  draught),  to  use  these 
sort  of  Carriages  and  no  other,  since  these  Coaches  need  no  alteration. 
All  persons  may  be  further  informed  at  Mr.  Green's  house,  in  Carteret 
Street,  by  the  cock-pit  Royal  in  Westminster,  and  at  Mr.  Dockura's 
house  in  Little  Saint  Helen's  in  Bishopsgate  Street,  who  hopes  his 
Partner  and  he  shall  fare  better  by  this  Invention  than  he  did  by  set- 
ting up  that  of  the  Penny  Post." 

From  the  "Tales  of  an  Antiquary"  we  take  the  following  description 
of  stage-coaches  in  1755:  "In  my  young  days,  stage-coaches  were 
constructed  principally  of  dull  black  leather,  thickly  studded  by  way 
of  ornament  with  black,  broad-headed  nails,  tracing  out  the  panels,  in 
the  upper  tier  of  which  were  four  oval  windows,  with  heavy  red 
wooden  frames,  or  leather  curtains.  Upon  the  doors,  also,  were  dis- 
played, in  large  characters,  the  names  of  the  places  where  the  coach 
started  and  whither  it  went,  stated  in  quaint  and  antique  language. 
The  vehicles  themselves  varied  in  shape.  Sometimes  they  were  like  a 
distiller's  vat,  somewhat  flattened,  and  hung  equally  balanced  between 
the  immense  front  and  back  springs.  In  other  instances  they  resem- 
bled a  violoncello-case,  which  was,  past  all  comparison,  the  most  fash- 
ionable form  ;  and  then  they  hung  in  a  more  genteel  posture,  namely, 
inclining  on  the  back  springs,  and  giving  to  those  who  sat  within  the 
appearance  of  a  stiff  Guy  Fawkes  uneasily  seated.  The  roofs  of  the 
coaches,  in  most  cases,  rose  in  a  swellini?  curve,  which  was  sometimes 


INCONVENIENCES   OF  STAGE-COACHES. 


321 


surrounded  by  a  high  iron  guard.  The  coacliman  and  the  guard,  who 
always  held  his  carbine  ready  cocked  upon  his  knee,  then  sat  together, 
not,  as  at  present,  upon  a  close,  compact,  varnished  seat,  but  over  a 
very  long  and  narrow  boot,  which  passed  under  a  large,  spreading 
hammer-cloth,  hanging  down  on  all  sides,  and  finished  with  a  flowing 
and  most  luxuriant  fringe.  Behind  the  coach  was  an  immense  basket, 
stretched  far  and  wide  beyond  the  body,  to  which  it  was  attached  by 
long  iron  bars  or  supports  passing  beneath  it,  though  even  these 
seemed  scarcely  equal  to  the  enormous  weights  with  which  they  were 
frequently  loaded.  These  baskets  were,  hoAvever,  never  great  favor- 
ites, although  their  difierence  of  price  caused  them  to  be  frequently 
well  filled." 

In  the  following  cut  we  have  the  picture  of  a  stage-coach  of  the 
time  of  Hogarth,  or  at  least  a  similar  one  to  that  represented  in  his 
print  of  "  The  Country  Inn  Yard,"  which  he  so  ludicrously  depicts. 
Instead  of  two,  it  Avould  seem  to  require  at  least  four  horses  to  move 


English   Stage-coach,  1755, 

it  with  success.  The  model  is  far  behind,  in  symmetry,  that  of  the 
pleasure-carriages  of  that  period.  The  driver  seems  to  be  cramped  up 
in  an  illy  constructed  boot,  and  the  low-fare  passenger  with  the  bag- 
gage on  the  roof  sets  all  hopes  of  comfortable  traveling  at  defiance. 
The  twain  bundled  in  the  liox  (basket)  with  the  trunks,  in  rear  of  the 
body,  are,  if  possible,  still  more  inconveniently  placed ;  nor  are  the 
inside  passengers  much  better  off.  The  wheels  of  these  old  stage- 
coaches were  large,  massive,  ill-formed,  and  usually  of  a  red  color, 
and  the  three  horses  sometimes  affixed  to  the  machine  —  the  foremost 
21 


322  ENGLISH    WOULD    ON   WHEELS. 

of  which  was  helped  onward  by  carrying  a  huge,  long-legged  elf  of  a 
postilion,  dressed  in  a  cocked  hat,  with  a  large  green  and  gold  riding- 
coat —  were  all  so  far  parted  from  it  by  the  great  length  of  their  traces 
that  it  Avas  with  no  little  difiicnlty  that  the  poor  animals  dragged  their- 
unwieldy  burden  along  the  road.  It  groaned  and  creaked  at  every 
fresh  tug  which  they  gave  it,  as  a  ship  rocking  or  beating  up  through 
a  heavy  sea  strains  all  Jier  timbers  with  a  low,  moaning  sound  as  she 
drives  over  the  contending  waves. ^ 

It  was  some  time  before  stage-coach  traveling  was  performed  at 

night,  the  practice  of  which  probably  suggested  the  necessity  of  a 
guard,  because  of  dangers  from  robbers,  who  fi-equently  left  their  vic- 
tims apparently  dead  in  securing  their  ill-gotten  gains. 

There  are  some  very  gorgeous  ceremonies  peculiar  to  European 
cities,  from  which  happily  our  country  is  free.  Among  these  is  the 
Lord  Mayor's  Show,  annually  made  on  the  ninth  day  of  November, 
when  a  new  magistrate  is  inducted  into  office.  This  now  useless 
expenditure  of  money  has  grown  out  of  a  fondness  for  pageantry 
among  the  gayer  classes  in  earlier  times.  When  King  John  in  1215 
first  granted  a  mayor  to  the  city  of  London,  it  was  stipulated  that  the 
man  elected  to  the  office,  before  entering  thereon,  then  a  lifelong 
tenure,  should  be  presented  to  the  king  or  his  justice  at  Westminster 
for  approval.  This  appearance  was  made  by  a  party  on  horseback, 
the  water  procession  in  barges  not  having  been  added  until  1436. 
Since  that  time  it  has  been  no  uncommon  sight  to  find  "Neptune,"  in 
his  chariot  on  the  Thames,  addressing  the  candidate  previous  to  his 
appearance  at  Westminster.  Occasionally  a  chariot  was  seen  in  the 
procession,  but  no  Lord  Mayor  appeared  in  a  coach  until  1712.  A 
coach  was  built  for  this  special  purpose  in  1757,  at  a  cost  of  £1,057  3.s'. 

'  The  first  post-chaise  built  in  England  is  said  to  have  been  constructed  in  Queen 
Street,  Lincoln's  Inn,  in  a  building  where  the  same  business  is,  or  was  until  recently, 
carried  on.  It  had  but  two  wheels,  and  was  open  in  front.  One  writer  describes  it  as 
having  very  much  the  appearance  of  a  bathing-tub.  We  learn  from  the  Historical  and 
Descriptive  Account  of  the  British  Post  Office,  recently  published  in  England,  that  one 
John  Palmer  was  the  first  to  advocate  carrying  letters  in  what  has  since  been  called 
mail-coaches.  This  was  in  1783,  and  under  much  opposition  from  the  post-office  ofD- 
cials ;  but  continued  perseverance  led  to  his  final  installation  of  comptroller-general  of 
mail-coaches.  Under  his  management  receipts  largely  increased,  and  it  is  said  that 
Palmer's  coaches  were  so  well  guarded  that  they  were  never  robbed.  The  transmis- 
sion of  the  mails  between  Edinburgh  and  London  was  done  by  him  in  six  hours  less 
than  it  had  previously  ever  been. 


DESGBIPTION   OF  THE  LORD  MAYOR'S   COACH.  323 

For  some  forty-five  years  previously  this  diguitary  was  provided  with 
a  coach  from  those  in  common  use. 

It  appears  from  an  entry  in  the  "  British  Chronicle  "  of  Wednesday, 
the  9th  of  November,  1757,  that  this  coach  was  built  "by  subscriptions 
of  £60  each  from  the  several  aldermen  then  under  the  chair,  and  the 
aldermen  entered  into  an  agreement  that  every  gentleman  thereafter 
elected  alderman  should  on  his  admission  subscribe  £60  towards  the 
expense  of  building  the  coach,  and  when  elected  mayor  £100,  which 
£100  Avas  to  be  allowed  him  for  ornamenting  and  beautifying  the 
same."     It  is  thus  described  :  — 

The  under-carriage  ("  carriage-part ")  has  a  double  perch  terminat- 
ing in  dolphins'  heads.  Over  the  back  axle-tree  is  an  open  frame- 
work, to  which  the  braces  supporting  the  body  are  attached ;  the  ends 
of  which  frame-work  are  ornamented  with  two  griffins,  and  in  the 
center  is  the  shield  of  the  city  arms,  supported  by  effigies  of  Commerce 
and  Plenty.  Two  marine  figures,  supporting  a  large  scallop-shell, 
supply  a  foot-board  for  the  driver.  The  massive  wheels,  as  well  as 
some  other  portions  of  the  under-carriage,  are  richly  carved,  painted 
red,  and  gilded.  The  bosses  covering  the  end  of  the  hub  are  very 
elaborate,  and  likewise  gilded. 

The  body  of  this  coach  is  "hung  ofi""  upon  four  thick  leather  braces, 
attached  to  as  many  parts  of  frame-work,  fastened  with  large  brass 
buckles,  ornamented  with  the  city  arms.  The  lower  front  panel  — 
supposed  to  have  been  painted  by  Cipriani  —  represents  Faith  beside 
an  altar,  supporting  Charity,  with  Hope  directing  the  spectator's  atten- 
tion towards  a  picture  of  St.  Paul's  ;  the  lower  back  panel.  Genius  of 
the  City,  seated,  into  whose  lap  Riches  and  Plenty  are  pouring  money 
and  fruit,  a  ship  being  represented  in  the  background,  Merchandise  in 
front ;  the  upper  back  panel,  Genius  of  the  City,  accompanied  by 
Neptune,  receiving  Trade  and  Commerce.  This  same  Genius  of  the 
City  makes  her  appearance  on  both  door  panels  :  on  the  right,  having 
in  her  hands  the  SAVord  and  scepter.  Fame  presents  her  with  a  Lord 
Mayor  in  the  act  of  being  crowned,  the  accessories  being  a  table,  on 
which  are  grouped  the  sword,  mace,  and  a  cap  of  maintenance ;  in  a 
small  lower  panel,  the  staft'  of  Mercury  and  a  cornucopia.  On  the  left, 
this  Genius  stands  with  her  right  hand  resting  on  a  civic  shield,  Avith 
Mars  directing  his  spear  to  a  scroll  held  by  Truth,  on  Avhich  we  read 
the  name  of  "Henr}^   Fitzalwin,    1189,"  reputed  as  being  the  first 


324  ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

mayor,  the  Tower  of  London  with  shipping  forming  a  background  ;  in 
the  small  lower  panel,  the  city  sword  and  scales  of  justice.  One  side 
panel  represents  Truth  holding  a  mirror ;  another,  Temperance  with  a 
bridle  ;  a  third,  Justice  holding  the  scales ;  a  fourth,  Fortitude.  At 
the  lower  angles  of  the  doors,  as  well  as  those  of  the  front  and  back 
panels,  are  emblazoned  the  arms  of  the  city  and  those  of  the  ruling 
Lord  Mayor.  On  the  roof  are  eight  vases.  The  central  figure — what 
remains  of  it  —  is  covered  with  the  arms  of  the  city,  from  which,  as 
the  base,  scroll-work  trails  over  the  roof  in  every  direction. 

Plate-glass  serves  for  the  windows.  Over  the  doors  are  Phrygian 
caps,  with  wings  surrounded  with  scroll-work;  between  the  upper  and 
lower  panels,  helmets,  spears,  and  flags.  Other  diminutive  figures  are 
emblematical  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe.  Over  the  back  panel 
are  the  serpent  and  dove,  representing  wisdom  and  innocence. 

The  student  curious  in  such  matters  will  find  a  very  full  history  of 
these  Lord  Mayor's  Shows  in  Knight's  "London,"  which  it  appears 
varied  with  the  name  or  business  character  of  the  incumbent,  a  pun- 
ning allusion  to  which  frequently  supplied  a  "  central  idea  "  for  gratifi- 
cation, as  when,  in  1591,  William  Web  was  inaugurated,  "in  the 
hinder  part  of  the  pageant  did  sit  a  child  representing  Nature,  holding 
in  her  hand  a  distafi",  and  spinning  a  web,  which  passeth  through  the 
hand  of  Fortune,  and  is  wheeled  up  by  Time." 

From  a  work  published  in  1768  we  extract  the  following :  "There 
is  of  late  an  admirable  commodiousness  both  for  men  and  women  of 
better  quality  to  travel  from  London  to  almost  any  town  in  England, 
and  to  almost  all  the  great  villages  near  this  great  city,  and  that  is  by 
stage-coaches,  wherein  we  may  be  transported  to  any  place,  sheltered 
from  foul  ways ;  and  this  not  only  at  a  low  price,  at  about  a  shilling 
for  every  five  miles,  but  with  such  speed  as  that  the  posts  in  some 
foreign  countries  make  not  more  miles  in  a  day ;  for  the  stage-coaches 
called  flying  coaches  make  fifty  or  sixty  miles  in  a  day,  or  from 
London  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge ;  sometimes  seventy  or  eighty  or  one 
hundred  miles,  as  to  Southampton,  Bury,  and  Norwich."  ^ 

The  brouette,  a  French  invention,  previously  noticed  on  page  230, 
was  introduced  into  England  about  this  time.  These  were  sometimes 
known  as  vinaigrettes  (sour),  and  not  improperly  so  called  by  the 

'  Magnos  Brit.  NotitUe. 


ENGLISH  HIOII-HUNO  PHAETON. 


325 


Indeed,  the  owners  of  sedans 


sedan  chairmen  of  the  day,  who,  finding  their  bnsiness  injured  by 
this  Continental  interloper,  had  their  tempers  very  much  soured  at 
the  loss  of  patronage  in  consequence, 
tried  their  best  to  have  them  prohib- 
ited, and  for  some  time  with  success. 
It  took  some  years  to  overcome  the 
prejudice  raised  against  them  in  Eng- 
land before  they  were  once  more  seen 
on  the  street,  coming  into  general  use 
in  1770.  As  made  in  England  they 
looked  very  much  like  a  sedan-chair 
supplied  with  wheels,  the  movement 
of  which  was  still  restricted  to  manual  labor,  as  shown  in  the  illustra- 
tion. Two  legs  framed  into  the  shafts  serve  to  support  the  machine 
when  at  rest.  We  learn  that  at  the  present  day,  in  one  or  two  London 
parishes,  similar  contrivances  are  still  employed  for  the  removal  of 
sick  paupers,  for  which  purpose  they  seem  well  adapted. 

While  the  war  was  being  prosecuted  by  the  owners  of  the  sedans 
against  brouettes,  there  one  day  appeared  a  novelty,  which  set  all 
London  in  an  agitation.  This  was  a  high-flier  in  the  form  of  a  phae- 
ton, of  which  an  illustration  is  given  below.     It  soon  became  popular 


English   Brouette. 


English  High-flier  Phaeton. 


among  the  sporting  young  men  of  that  day,  and  continued  so  for  many 
years.  Adams  observes  that '"  to  sit  in  such  a  seat,  when  the  horses 
were  going  at  much  speed,  would  require  as  much  skill  as  is  evinced 
by  a  rope-dancer  at  a  theater.  None  but  an  extremely  robust  consti- 
tution could  stand  the  violent  jolting  of  such  a  vehicle  over  the  stones 


326 


ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


of  a  paved  road."  Fairliolt,  in  the  "Art  Journal,"  thus  aUudes  to 
these  phaetons  :  "  The  insecurity  of  the  springs,  the  ugly  box  in  front, 
and  the  unsightly  open  one  for  servants  behind,  the  tottering  danger 
of  the  seat-holders,  who  reached  their  elevation  by  means  of  a  ladder, 
which  was  in  some  instances  permanently  fixed  to  the  side,  all  rendered 

it  inconvenient  and  danger- 
ous. It  was  still  received 
with  much  favor  among 
*  the  bucks  and  bloods ' 
who  loved  display  and 
thought  the  risk  of  a  neck 
nothing  in  comparison  with 
a  dashing  equipage,  calcu- 
lated to  make  the  ground- 
lings stare.  It  came  into 
fashion  under  the  highest 
auspices,  and  was  a  favo- 
rite driving  carriage  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  after- 
wards George  IV.  When 
the  novelty  of  the  thing 
had  ceased,  and  common- 
sense  returned,  it  was  grad- 
ually lowered,  until  the 
phaeton  assumed  a  conven- 
ient form  like  that  we  now 


George  III  two  years 
afterwards  (1762)  ordered 
a  coach  built  after  a  design 
by  Sir  William  Chambers, 
weighing  about  four  tons, 
and,  as  we  heard  an  Eng- 
lishman say  when  viewing  it  on  exhibition  at  South  Kensington, 
"  enough  to  make  one  sea-sick  to  ride  in  it."  The  costs  were  :  for  the 
coach-maker,  £1,7G3  15s.  Qd.;  for  the  carver,  £2,500;  gilder,  £933 
14s.;  painter,  £315;  laceman,  £737  10s.  Id.',  chaser,  £6G5  4s.  6'/.; 
harness-maker,  £385  15s. ;  mercer,  £202  5s.   lO^d.  ;  ])it-maker,  £99 


GEOEGE   THE   THIRD'S    STATE  COACH.  327 

9s.  6d.  ;  milliner,  £31  3s.  4zd.  ;  saddler,  £10  Gv.  6c/.  ;  woolen  draper, 
£4  2>s\  (Sd.  ;  cover-maker,  £3  95.  Qd.  ;  total,  £7,662  ^s.  o^d.,  or  about 
$36,778.1  Length,  twenty-four  feet;  width,  eight  feet  three  inches; 
height,  twelve  feet;    pole,  twelve  feet  long.      Of  it  a  rhymer  has 

said :  — 

"  Yield,  ye  triumphal  chariots,  yield  the  prize  ! 
Nor  boast  your  feats,  ye  fabled  deities  ! 
Though  called  a  coach,  behold  a  palace  move 
Grander  than  any  ye  can  shew  above. 
Even  Sol  himself,  suspended  on  his  way. 
Stoops  to  behold  a  brighter  car  by  day, 
Dreads  that  another  Phaeton  has  driven 
His  blazing  carriage  through  the  road  of  heaven, 
While  Jove,  still  mindful  of  Promethean  skill. 
Fears  that  his  throne  has  left  the  Olympian  hill  ; 
Neptune,  alarmed  to  see  the  Tritons  here, 
Thinks  an  usurper  of  his  ocean  near  ; 
Mars  with  surprise  beholds  the  warlike  car, 
And  sees,  or  thinks  he  sees,  a  rival  god  of  war  ; 
Well  may  they  fear,  united  on  his  throne. 
To  see  their  separate  powers  in  George  alone." 

The  following  picture,  painted  by  an  Englishman,  must  at  least 
amuse  the  reader  :  "  The  preparation  of  the  royal  equipage  for  a  grand 
state  occasion  is  a  real  sight.  The  tails  of  all  the  royal  studs  being 
properly  adjusted  (why  should  not  horses  of  fashion,  like  their  mis- 
tresses, wear  false  hair?),  they  are  with  some  little  trouble  harnessed, 
for  many  of  them  are  entire  animals,  and  their  mode  of  life  inclines 
them  to  wax  fat  and  kick  against  the  pricks.  And  now  comes  the 
important  operation  of  mounting  the  state  coachman  on  his  box.  This 
is  by  no  means  done  Avith  a  spring  and  a  jump  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
a  solemn  and  laborious  affair.  There  must  be  no  haste,  no  jesting ; 
otherwise  the  magnificent  posy  in  his  buttonhole  will  be  displaced,  and 
all  the  powder  shaken  out  of  the  prim  curls  of  his  periwig.  A  ladder 
is  procured,  and  he  mounts  to  his  seat  at  the  top  of  the  large  vehicle, 
and  there  he  sits,  a  perfect  'bright  poker'  of  a  coachman,  the  postilions 
being  really  in  command  of  the  animals,  in  conjunction  with  the  state- 
grooms,  who  walk  beside  them." 

Another  Eno-lishman  thus  describes  a  modern  state  show :  "  There 


'  The  original  bill  amounted  to  £8,000,  but  was  reduced  to  the  amount  mentioned 
in  the  text,  after  taxation. 


328  ENGLISH  WOULD   ON  WHEELS. 

Avas  curiosity,  decorum,  respectful  welcome  everywhere,  but  no  pop- 
ular enthusiasm.  .  .  .  Probably  the  spectators  hardly  discriminated 
the  royal  carriage  from  the  others,  missing  the  gorgeous  old  gilt,  gilt- 
gingerbread  shandrydan  -jommonly  used  on  such  occasions ;  and  then 
the  Queen  sat  so  far  back  that  she  was  hardly  visible,  except  to  those 
Avho  happened  to  be  close  to  the  carriage  windows.  .  .  .  However, 
there  were  the  orthodox  six  pair  of  cream-colored  horses  attached  to 
the  royal  carriage,  and  the  same  number  to  six  other  vehicles.  The 
color,  you  know,  is  sacred  to  British  and  Hanoverian  majesty.  When 
Bonaparte  the  First  gobbled  up  the  latter,  he  also  annexed  all  the 
cream-colors  he  could  find  in  the  stables  to  use  at  his  own  coronation, 
—  a  practical  joke  which  induced  old  George  HI  thenceforth  to  sport 
only  black  horses."  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  stud  from  which 
eight  horses  are  annually  selected  for  the  two  hours'  work  required, 
costs  the  English  nation  something  like  £1,000  an  hour ! 

The  "flying  machines"  of  1765  are  thus  described  by  M.  Crosley,  a 
French  traveler,  who  rode  in  one  from  Dover  to  London  in  that  year. 
He  says,  "The  great  multitude  of  passengers  with  which  Dover  was 
crowded  afibrded  a  reason  for  dispensing  with  a  law  of  the  police  by 
which  public  carriages  in  England  are  forbidden  to  travel  on  a  Sunday. 
I  myself  set  out  on  Sunday,  with  seven  more  passengers,  in  two  car- 
riages called  'flying  machines.'  These  vehicles,  which  were  drawn  by 
six  horses,  go  twenty-eight  leagues  in  a  day,  from  Dover  to  London, 
for  a  single  guinea.  Servants  are  entitled  to  a  place  for  half  that 
money,  either  behind  the  coach  or  upon  the  box,  which  has  three 
places.  The  coachmen,  who  were  changed  every  time  with  our  horses, 
were  lusty,  well-made  men,  dressed  in  good  cloth.  When  they  set  off, 
or  were  for  animating  their  horses,  I  heard  a  sort  of  periodical  noise, 
resembling  that  of  a  stick  striking  against  the  nave  of  the  fore-wheel. 
I  have  since  discovered  that  it  is  customary  with  the  English  coachmen 
to  give  their  horses  the  signal  for  setting  off  by  making  this  noise,  and 
by  beating  their  stools  with  their  feet  in  cadence ;  they  likewise  use 
the  same  signal  to  make  them  mend  their  pace.  The  coach- whip, 
which  is  nothing  else  but  a  long  piece  of  whalebone  covered  with  hair, 
and  with  a  small  cord  at  the  end  of  it,  is  no  more  in  their  hands  than 
the  fan  is  in  winter  in  the  hands  of  a  lady,  —  it  only  serves  them  to 
make  a  show,  as  their  horses  scarce  ever  feel  it." 

In  a  preceding  passage  we  have  intimated  that  vehicles  were  invented 


STREET   OBSTRUCTIONS  IN  LONDON: 


329 


English  Barouche,  1767. 


under  various  names.  One  of  the  results  of  later  improvements  was 
the  barouche,  an  engraving  of  which  is  given  l)el()w,  the  upper  portion 
of  which  was  so  contrived  that  it  could  be  turned  down  at  the  pleasure 
of  the  passengers.  This  vehicle,  pronounced  light  in  its  day,  would 
now  be  called  a  clumsy 
affiiir.  Our  picture  is 
copied  from  a  print  in- 
tended to  ridicule  the  fol- 
lies of  the  year  1767, 
among  which  riding  in 
carriages  was  classed,  as 
a  modern  writer  observes, 
"  after  the  ordinary  fash-  ^^§ 
ion  of  moralists,  who  gen- 
erally contrive  to  be  on 
the  safe  side  by  condemn- 
ing everything  new."  This 
party  picture  was  designed  to  represent  "  British  nobility  disguised.'' 
The  state  of  the  pavements,  until  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  gave 
but  poor  encouragement  to  the  building  of  light  carriages,  and  the 
fears  of  an  inexperienced  people  put  a  check  upon  the  use  of  pleasure- 
carriages  ;  but  from  that  time  we  find  them  coming  rapidly  into  use. 

In  this  year  a  Mr.  Young  "found  the  lanes  so  narrow  that  not  a 
mouse  could  pass  a  carriage,  and  ruts  of  incredible  depth;  wagons 
stuck  fast,  until  a  line  of  them  were  in  the  same  predicament,  and 
required  twenty  or  thirty  horses  to  be  fastened  together  to  each  to 
draAV  them  out  one  by  one."  Malcolm,  in  his  "Anecdotes  of  the  Man- 
ners and  Customs  of  London,"  tells  us  that  "those  honest  city  trades- 
men and  others  who  so  lovingly  carry  their  wives  and  mistresses  to 
tlie  neighboring  villages  in  chaises  to  regale  them  on  a  Sunday,  are 
seldom  sensible  of  the  great  inconveniences  and  dangers  they  are  exposed 
to  ;  for  besides  the  common  accidents  of  the  road,  there  is  a  set  of 
regular  rogues  kept  constantly  in  pay  to  incommode  them  in  their 
passage,  and  these  are  the  drivers  of  what  are  called  waiting-jobs,  and 
other  traveling  hackney-coaches,  with  sets  of  horses,  who  are  commis- 
sioned by  their  masters  to  annoy,  sink,  and  destroy  all  the  single  and 
double  horse  chaises  they  can  conveniently  meet  or  overtake  in  their 
way,  without  regard  to  the  lives  or  limbs  of  the  persons  who  travel  in 


330  ENGLISH   WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 

them.  What  havoc  these  industrious  sons  of  blood  and  wounds  have 
made  within  twenty  miles  of  London,  in  the  compass  of  a  summer's 
season,  is  best  known  to  the  articles  of  accidents  in  the  newspapers, 
the  miserable  shrieks  of  women  and  children  not  being  sufficient  to 
deter  the  villains  from  what  they  call  their  duty  to  their  masters ;  for, 
besides  their  daily  or  weekly  wages,  they  have  an  extraordinary  stated 
allowance  for  every  chaise  they  can  reverse,  ditch,  or  bring  by  the  road, 
as  the  term  or  phrase  is.  I  am  credibly  informed  that  many  of  the 
coachmen  and  postilions  belonging  to  the  gentry  are  seduced  by  the 
masters  of  traveling-coaches  to  involve  themselves  in  the  guilt  of  this 
monstrous  iniquity,  and  have  certain  fees  for  dismounting  persons  on 
single  horses  and  overturning  chaises,  when  it  shall  suit  with  their 
convenience  to  do  it  with  safety,  that  is,  within  the  verge  of  the  law ; 
and  in  case  of  an  action  of  indictment,  if  the  master  or  mistress  will 
not  stand  by  their  servant,  and  believe  the  mischief  was  purely  acci- 
dental, the  offender  is  then  defended  by  a  general  contribution  from 
all  the  stage-coach  masters  within  the  bill  of  mortality."  This  is  a  very 
sad  "tale  of  the  day,"  scarcely  credited  by  those  living  in  later  times. 

It  is  stated  that  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Moore  in  1770  invented 
a  kind  of  coach  which  was,  in  truth,  an  embryo  omnibus,  and  is 
described  as  having  been  a  common  coach  reversed,  containing  six 
passengers,  swung  between  two  large  wheels  nine  feet  six  inches  in 
diameter ;  and  with  the  driver  perched  upon  the  roof,  and  one  horse  in 
shafts,  is  stated  to  have  carried  seven  persons  with  ease  from  Cheap- 
side  to  the  summit  of  Ludgate  Hill. 

The  "  flying  coach  "  previously  alluded  to  under  the  name  of  "  a  fly- 
ing machine,"  is  said,  in  the  Diary  of  Anthony  Wood,  to  have  com- 
pleted the  journey  between  Oxford  and  London  in  thirteen  hours, 
which  is  certain  evidence  that  the  improved  roads  and  improved  vehi- 
cles were  all  contributing  to  render  traveling  more  expeditious  and 
pleasant.  Still  there  were  those  whose  prejudices  or  interests  con- 
cocted serious  charges  against  their  use.  One  was,  that  they  were 
very  liable  to  overturn,  and  endanger  the  life  of  the  passenger.  In 
the  "Gentleman's  Magazine"  for  1771,  we  find  a  correspondent  stating 
the  cause  of  these  accidents  and  suggesting  remedies.  He  says  that 
the  bodies  are  suspended  too  high  from  the  ground,  and  too  heavily 
laden  with  passengers  on  the  roof.  He  wishes  that  carrying  passen- 
gers on  the  top  could  be  strictly  forbidden,  but  is  apprehensive  that. 


CYLINDRICAL   AND   CONICAL    WHEELS. 


331 


though  it  were,  the  ambition  of  coach-owners  would  raise  the  inside 
fares  so  high  that  it  would  prevent  many  from  riding  in  coaches. 
Another  cause  is  ascribed  to  the  excessive  roundness  of  turnpike  roads, 
which  was  frequently  so  great  that  one  coach  could  not  pass  another 
without  great  danger  of  upsetting.  This  "reformer"  suggests,  as  one 
remedy,  that  it  should  be  made  imperative  on  coach  proprietors  to 
have  their  axle-trees  made  longer,  so  as  to  track  five  feet  eight  inches 
instead  of  four  feet  eight.  This  improvement  would  not  only  render 
the  coach  less  liable  to  overturn,  but  allow  of  the  body  being  made 
larger,  so  as  to  contain  six  passengers.  This  would  lessen  the  price 
of  an  inside  seat,  and  traveling,  in  consequence,  become  much  cheaper. 
What  efiect  our  speculator  —  for  he  evidently  was  not  a  coach-maker 
—  may  have  had,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  information, 
derived  from  the  "Annual  Eegister"  for  1775,  where  we  are  told  that 
"the  stage-coaches  of  the  day  generally  drive  with  eight  inside  and 
often  ten  outside  passengers  each."  It  is  there  stated  that  there  were 
upwards  of  four  hundred  of  the  coaches  included  in  the  terms  flies, 
machines,  and  diligences,  "and  of  other  four-wheeled  carriages  seven- 
teen thousand." 

In  the  year  1779,  Alexander  Cummings,  Esq.,  F.  R.  S.,  wrote  a 
paper  on  the  comparative  merits  of  cylindrical  and  conical  wheels,  a 
sulyect  which  in  our  day  seems  unworthy  the  thought  bestowed  upon 
it.  Any  mechanic  of  the  least  practical  obser- 
vation would  at  a  glance  pronounce  a  conical 
wheel  simply  an  absurdity,  and  yet  such  found 
strenuous  advocates  for  their  superiority  over 
all  others  in  earlier  times.  He  says  :  "The  cylin- 
drical wheel,  having  all  its  parts  of  equal  diam- 
eter, will,  in  rolling  on  its  rim,  have  an  equal 
velocity  at  every  part  of  its  circumference ^  and 
necessarily  advance  in  a  straight  line,""  with  the 
least  possible  resistance,  leveling  the  substance 
on  which  it  rolls. 

"When  wheels  with  cylindrical  rims  are  connected  by  an  axis,  the 
tendency  of  each  being  to  advance  in  a  straight  line,  they  proceed  in 
this  connected  state  with  the  same  harmony  and  unity  of  consent  that 
exist  in  the  parts  of  the  same  cylinder  with  the  same  facility  of  motion 
so  favorable  to  the  horse,  and  with  all  other  properties  that  have  been 


CYiiiNDUiCAL  Wheel. 


332 


ENGLISH   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


stated  as  favorable  to  the  roads,  there  is  no  more  friction  or  resistance 
in  this  cormected  state  of  the  pair  of  wheels  than  is  applied  to  the  same, 
and  than  if  each  rolled  separately/  or  unconnectedly ." 

Per  contra :  "  But  as  conical  rims  have  been  universally  preferred 
for  a  series  of  years,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  there  were  obvious 
reasons  for  such  preference ;  let  us  then  endeavor  to  investigate  the 
properties  that  must  necessarily  arise  from  the  shape  of  the  cone,  and 
see  from  them  how  far  the  consequent  effects  can  justify  the  preference 
so  lonoj  ffiven  to  the  conical  rim." 

We  have  not  space  to  enter  fully  into  the 
mechanical  operations  of  a  coned  wheel ;  suf- 
fice it  here  to  say  that  a  small  expenditure  of 
judgment  will  satisfy  any  one  that  a  wheel 
with  the  hub  rubbins^  and  cutting  into  an  axle- 
tree  at  the  shoulder,  as  is  here  shown,  must 
not  only  prove  detrimental  to  the  axle-tree, 
but  require  more  strength  to  move  it,  indeed 
tax  the  horse  beyond  endurance.  Such  "  a 
monstrosity  "  is  beneath  the  contempt  of  mod- 
ern mechanism,  and  is  only  introduced  here 
in  order  to  show  its  absurdity. 

The  next  engraving  represents  the  coach  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  of 


Coned  Wheel. 


Coach   of  the   Lord  Chancellor   of  Ireland. 


COLLIN GE  AXLE  AND  BOX. 


333 


Ireland,  built  in  1780,  and  lately  sliown  in  the  South  Kensington  col- 
lection. The  allegorical  decorations  on  the  panels  are  by  W.  Hamil- 
ton, B.  A.  Some  of  the  improvements  made  in  carriages  during  the 
eighteen  years  since  the  English  state  coach  was  built  are  observable 
in  this,  although,  in  all  probability,  it  is  more  in  accordance  with  the 
Lord  Chancellor's  fancy  than  the  fashion  then  in  vogue.  Like  most 
vehicles  contrived  for  the  state,  it  may  be  said  of  it  that  "it  is  more 
for  ornament  than  use." 

The  year  1784  is  remarkable  for  the  introduction  of  umbrellas  into 
London  from  Paris,  and  the  decided  opposition  they  met  with  from 
the  chair  and  hackney  men,  as  being  detrimental  to  their  business, 
regardless  as  usual  of  the  public  welfare. 

John  Collinge,  a  London  coach-maker,  in  1792  invented  a  complex 
but  valuable  axle  and  box,  so  constructed  that  it  will  run  three  months 
without  oiling,  and  is  almost  noiseless.  The  greatest  drawback  is  the 
difficulty  of  supplying  parts  when  such  are  lost,  as  we  have  found  out 
by  experience.  For  this  reason  the  American  half-patents  and  other 
inventions  have  been  substituted. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  much  attention  was 
given  to  road-making  in  England,  and  one  objection  which  Cummiugs 
brought  against  the  use  of  conical  wheels  was  that  they  injured  the 
roads.  To  repair — or  at 
least  to  prevent  —  such  dam- 
age we  shall  suppose  Eobert 
Bealson,  Esq.,  in  1796  in- 
vented "  a  simple  contriv- 
ance for  preventing  the 
wheels  of  carriao-es  makino: 
ruts  in  roads."  He  tells  us 
that,  "  although  several  ma- 
chines have  been  invented 
for  facilitating  the  repair  of 
roads,  and  filling  up  of  ruts  made  by  carriages,  yet  no  method  has 
ever  been  proposed,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  iwevent  the  wheels  of  car- 
riages making  ruts."  Thinking  it  "  easier  to  prevent  an  evil  than  to 
cure  it  afterwards,"  he  gives  us  what  he  calls  "  a  road  protector."  In 
the  diagram,  A.  and  D  are  the  wheels ;  G,  D,  supposed  level  of  the 
road ;   JS',  the  broad  roller,  one  and  a  half  inches  from  the  ground. 


AD  Protector,  179( 


334 


ENGLISH  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


only  to  come  into  service  when  the  wheels  sink  below  the  surface  of 
the  ground.  Mr.  Bealson  fairly  exults  under  the  idea  that,  "  by 
keeping  the  protection  a  little  higher  than  the  lower  level  of  the 
wheels,  it  is  evident  that  on  good  hard  roads  or  streets  the  wheels  will 
always  bear  the  weight  of  the  load,  nor  can  they  make  any  ruts,  or 
sink  into  old  ones,  however  deep  they  may  be,  while  the  middle  of  the 
road  remains  firm,  for  the  protector  will  roll  upon  the  middle,  which 
will  certainly  be  a  much  easier  draft  for  the  horses  than  if  the  wheels 
were  in  deep  ruts." 

The  following  year,  Henry  Overend,  of  Bristol,  invented  "a  wheel- 
carriage,  or  machine,  which  may  be  used  as  a  wagon,  cart,  or  dray,  in 
a  more  perfect  or  expeditious  manner  and  with  fewer  horses  than  usu- 
ally and  heretofore  done,"  assuring  us  that  the  engraving,  a  copy  of 
which  is  given  below,  is  a  correct  drawing  of  his  machine.  Mr.  Over- 
end  says  his  machine  hung  about  "  a  foot  from  the  ground,  but  that  it 


Cart   and   Wagon   comdined,    1707. 

could  be  made  either  higher  or  lower,  as  the  occasion  may  require, 
upon  the  same  principle  and  proportion." 

In  the  diagram,  A  denotes  the  shafts,  which  may  be  shifted  to  either 
end  of  the  machine ;  B^  iron  receiver  for  the  shafts  ;,  G,  (7,  C,  (7,  the 
iron  wheels ;  C',  C,  patent  caster-wheels  fixed  on  the  center  of  the 
bars  of  the  machine.  How  such  a  machine  could  be  "  moved  in  an 
expeditious  manner"  would  puzzle  any  modern  coach-maker.  This 
machine  is  confessedly  the  invention  of  "  a  gentleman,"  and  therefore 
a  failure. 

Notwithstanding  these  "  eccentricities,"  the  invention  of  gentlemen , 
carriage-making  made  rapid  strides  during  the  last  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as  appears 
from  W.  Felton's  "Treatise  on  Carriages  and  Harness,"  the  first  vol- 
ume of  which  appeared  in  1794,  and  the  second  in  1795.  In  his  intro- 
ductory remarks  he  says,  "The  art  of  coach-making  within  this  last 


COACH-MAKE B  B EIGHTS  AND  BLACKS.  335 

half-centuiy  has  arrived  to  a  very  high  degree  of  perfection,  with 
respect  both  to  the  beauty,  strength,  and  elegance  of  the  machine. 
The  consequence  has  been  an  increasing  demand  for  that  comfortable 
conveyance,  which,  besides  its  common  utility,  has  now  in  the  higher 
circles  of  life  become  a  distinguishing  mark  of  the  taste  and  rank  of 
the  proprietor."  He,  however,  complains  because  "more  than  a  third 
part  of  the  master  coach-builders  were  in  fact  only  harness-makers, 
whose  judgment  in  the  construction  of  a  carriage  can  go  little  further 
than  that  of  a  shoemaker ;  yet  these  professors,  aided  and  supported 
by  the  coach-makers,  have  always  opposed,  and  still  continue  to 
oppose,  every  other  tradesman  concerned  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
principal  materials  of  which  a  carriage  is  composed,  such  as  wheel- 
wrights, smiths,  painters,  carvers,  joiners,  etc.,  either  of  whose  judg- 
ment must  far  exceed  that  of  harness-makers,  and  many  of  whom  pos- 
sess a  knowledge  little  inferior  to  the  professed  builder  himself.  But 
thus  united,  they  strenuously  oppose  every  new  adventurer  in  the 
trade,  though  ever  so  well  qualified,  if  not  bred  a  harness  or  a  coach 
maker,  and  connected  with  them  in  this  association.  They  (the  asso- 
ciators)  have  been  pleased  to  dignify  themselves  with  the  title  of 
Brights,  and  to  bestow  upon  their  rivals  the  opprobrious  epithet  of 
Blacks.  This  conduct  has  an  evident  tendency  to  a  monopoly,  and 
of  consequence  is  a  discouragement  to  the  ingenious  and  enterprising 
tradesman,  whose  talents  might  otherwise  raise  him  to  eminence  in  his 
profession." 

A  custom  still  in  practice,  Avhich  on  the  score  of  honesty  ought  to 
have  been  abolished  long  ago,  prevailed  in  Felton's  time.  He  says, 
"  A  practice  has  been  introduced,  and  a  long  time  continued,  that  the 
gentleman  of  the  whip  receive  douceurs  from  the  tradesmen  employed 
in  building  or  repairing  of  carriages,  no  doubt  with  the  original  inten- 
tion of  encouraging  the  coachman  to  take  good  care  of  the  carriage  and 
preserve  his  interest  with  the  employer.  It  is  very  likely  the  zeal  and 
activity  of  the  coachman  will  in  a  great  degree  be  proportionate  to  the 
encouragement  given  him.  Very  extravagant  expectations  are  formed 
by  many,  which,  if  not  complied  with,  are  sure  to  draw  the  resentment 
of  the  disappointed  coachman  upon  the  tradesman,  and,  if  complied 
with,  he  has  no  other  method  of  reimbursing  himself  for  this  very 
unfair  transaction  than  l)y  charging  an  exorbitant  price  for  his  work- 
manship ;  so  that  ultimately  his  employer  suffers  a  manifest  injury. 


336 


ENGLISH  WOELD  01^  WHEELS. 


If  the  coachman  be  honest,  attentive  to  his  master's  interest,  and  a 
tolerable  judge  of  his  business,  he  will  discover  that  ani/  repair  is 
necessary,  and  in  some  measure  to  what  extent  that  repair  ought  to 
be  carried ;  but  if  swayed  by  sinister  motives,  and  the  tradesman 
should  happen  to  be  of  the  same  complexion,  a  wide  field  opens  for 
collusion  between  the  two,  and  the  proprietor  is  sure  to  be  imposed 
upon." 

At  the  period  of  which  we  write,  the  S-spring,  the  original  of  the  C- 
spring,  had  in  various  forms  come  into  practical  use.  This  will  be 
manifest  as  we  progress  with  our  history.  In  the  accompanying  illus- 
tration we  give  the 
reader  what  Felton 
calls  a  "  neat  orna- 
mented, or  toivn 
coach"  which  in  his 
day  sold  for  £190, 
or  about  $912.  This 
was  hung  upon  S- 
springs,  but  we  shall 
also  find  in  other  car- 
Tow  n  Coach,  1796.  riagcs  the  scroll,  the 
worm,  the  French  horn,  the  doul)le  and  single  elbow,  and  the  grass- 
hopper springs,  each  accommodated  to  the  position  for  which  it  was 
designed.  A  set  of  springs  then  cost  £3  18«.,  or  about  $19.  The 
singularly  constructed  box  under  the  driver's  seat  is  known  as  the 
"  Salisbury  boot,"  and  the  trimming  of  the  seat  is  called  the  "  hammer- 
cloth."  Instead  of  glass,  we  find  the  doors  supplied  with  blinds,  and 
the  footman's  rack  much  like  those  already  introduced  in  previous 
examples.  The  carriage  for  the  first  time  exhibits  a  lamp,  footmen- 
holders,  etc. 

The  traveling  coach  of  the  latter  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  is 
shown  in  the  next  engraving.  As  these  were  principally  intended  for 
Continental  journeys,  strength  and  convenience  were  first  to  be  consid- 
ered, and  plain,  strong-built  crane-neck  carriages  preferred,  since  "the 
roads  on  the  Continent  are  very  rough,  and  in  the  towns  very  narrow ; 
and  as  there  is  not  much  opportunity  for  cleaning  or  mending  on  the 
way,  the  plainer  and  the  stronger  they  arc  built,  the  l)etter  for  the 
purpose."     The  great  expense  of  these  carriages  was  chiefly  owing  to 


TBAVELING  AND   CBANE-NECK  COACHES, 


337 


the  many  conveniences  required  for  the  passenger's  luggage  in  that 
age.  Felton's  detailed  description  may  prove  interesting:  "The  car- 
nage is  a  crane-neck ;  strong  straked  wheels  [tire  in  pieces]  ;  patent 
anti-attrition  axles  and  boxes ;  a  raised  hind  end,  with  short  plain 
blocks ;  a  common 
coach-box  with  a 
traveling  seat ;  a 
l^latform  budget  be- 
fore, with  a  large 
trunk  within  it,  and 
inside  straps  and 
laths  to  ditto  ;  /i  trunk 
behind  with  ditto, 
andtwoleatherbelts ; 

a  chain-belt  for  secu-  

rity,  and  an  oil  cover  traveling  coaci 

for  the  trunk;  the  springs  covered ;  a  drag-staff  [a  short  pole,  or  leg, 
let  down  at  the  hinder  part  of  the  coach  in  ascending  a  hill,  while  the 
horses  rested]  ;  a  chain ;  and  a  tool  budget  for  the  coachman's  conven- 
ience. The  body  plain,  with  a  sword-case,  lined  with  second  [quality] 
cloth,  and  trimmed  with  a  two-inch  lace,  and  two  and  a  half  ditto  for 
the  holders ;  squabs,  or  sleeping-cushions,  faced  with  silk ;  Venetian 
blinds  ;  seat-boxes  ;  Wilton  carpet ;  double-folding  steps  ;  the  plating 
with  composition  metal ;  a  five-eighths-of-an-inch  molding  all  around 
the  middle  and  roof,  up  the  corner-pillars  and  side  of  the  doors ;  a  set 
of  circles  for  head-plates  ;  a  pair  of  sword-case  frames  ;  a  well  at  the 
bottom;  two  imperials  for  the  roof;  the  painting,  varnishing,  etc., 
plain  ;  mantles,  with  ciphers  on  the  door-panels  ;  crests  on  the  stiles  ; 
main  and  check  braces,  with  buckles,  and  French  pole-pieces,"  The 
"loop-irons,"  seen  in  the  two  last  engravings,  are  singularly  at  vari- 
ance with  the  preconceived  ideas  of  modern  coach-building. 

For  show  on  certain  occasions,  a  crane-neck  coach,  with  consider- 
able artistic  taste,  was  built,  a  drawing  of  which  is  given  on  next 
page.  Here  a  profusion  of  carved  ornaments  and  figures  in  gilt,  with 
beautiful  paintings,  decorate  the  outside ;  rich  velvet  linings  and  silk 
trimmings  the  inside.  This  coach  was  built  on  the  same  principle  as 
the  state  carriages,  such  as  in  that  day  were  shipped  to  the  East  and 
West  Indies,  "it  being  made  very  airy,  with  side  and  end  lights  or 


338 


ENGLISH   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


windows ;    the    kind    of  carriages    used   chiefly   in   those   places   are 
crane-necked,  but  are  built  much  lighter  than  what  is  necessary  for 

this  country  [Eng- 
land] ,  as  the  horses 
not  being  so  strong, 
and  the  roads  of 
soft,  sandy  soil,  a 
heavy  carriage 
would  sink  therein, 
and  be  obstructed 
by  its  weight," 
The  next  carriage 

Crane. NECK   Coach,    1796.  is  knOWU  aS  the  Za/l- 

dau.  This  diflfers  but  little  from  the  coach,  except  that  the  top  may 
be  thrown  down  at  pleasure,  affording  air  and  prospect  in  fine  weather. 
Felton  pronounces  them  "  the  most  convenient  carriages  of  any,  as  so 
inany  j)ersons  may  be  accommodated  with  the  pleasure  of  an  open  and 
a  close  carriage  in  one,  without  the  care  of  driving,  as  in  other  open 
carriages,  or  the  expense  and  incumbrance  of  keeping  two,  and  the 
expense  for  duty  saved 
thereby,  are  advantages 
worth  the  notice  of 
those  who  wish  to  be 
thus  accommodated." 
But  it  seems  "  the  care 
of  driving  in  other  open 
carriages "  prevented 
the  general  use  of  lan- 
daus in  former  days  as  English  Landau,  1796. 
in  our  own ;  and  besides,  the  cost  is  a  no  inconsiderable  sum  for  the 
common  people  to  be  at,  —  no  less  than  £190.  For  country  use  in 
summer  jaunts,  these  carriages  have  always  been  popular  in  Eu- 
rope. 

For  the  use  of  a  fashionable  and  exclusive  class  of  customers,  a  vis- 
a-vis, or  sociable,  was  built,  and  finished  in  a  superior  manner  to  the 
generality  of  carriages,  and  somewhat  lighter  in  the  body  than  the 
common  coach,  at  much  less  expense.  These  sociables  were  originally 
intended  for  two  passengers,  who  sat  facing  each  other,  —  hence  the 


POST-CHAISE  AND   TOWN  CHABIOT. 


339 


name,  "vis-a-vis"  (face  to  face)  ;  and,  being  narrow,  were  proportion- 
ably  warmer,  and  the  passengers  not  so  easily  tossed  about. 

The  Jpos^-c7^a^5e  was  another  variation  from  the  coach  model,  designed 
for  expeditious  traveling,  the  draft  of  which  was  not  impeded  with 
unnecessary  and  cumbersome  weight,  but  made  light  and  plain.  The 
absurd  custom  of  the  driver,  in  riding  the  near  horse  in  traveling,  was 
a  long  time  practiced,  although  it  was  evidently  the  destruction  of  a 
great  many  horses ;  "  for,"  says  a  writer  of  the  times,  "  if  a  man  is  a 
sufficient  burden  for  a  horse  to  travel  Avith,  to  impose  also  an  equal 
share  of  the  draft  of  a  carriage,  with  his  yoked  companion,  must  soon 
fatigue  him  and  impede  the  traveling  thereby,  unless  the  poor  animal 
is  scourged  to  exertion  beyond  his  natural  strength  to  keep  jjace  with 
the  other  horse  ;  any  simple  contrivance  on  the  carriage  for  the  driver 
to  sit  in  would  lessen  the  fatigue,  both  to  man  and  horse,  and  be  more 
likely  to  promote  speed."  These  post-chaises,  in  the  absence  of  facili- 
ties for  travel  enjoyed  by  us,  were  found  very  convenient,  and  were 
kept  for  public  hire,  as  well  as  for  private  use,  by  such  as  were  able 
to  stand  the  expense.  Posting  by  pul)lic  conveyance  submitted  the 
traveler  to  some  inconveniences,  such  as  the  trouble  of  changing  his 
luggage  to  another  vehicle  at  the  end  of  a  j^ost.  This  could  only  be 
avoided  Avhere  an  individual  was  the  owner  of  his  own  chaise.  The 
exi^ense,  whether  by  public  or  hy  private  conveyance,  was  about  the 
same. 

The  next  engraving  represents  a  town  chariot  of  the  close  of  the  past 
century,  which  was  considered  a  very  genteel  carriage.  It  was  far 
more  convenient  than 
the  coach,  being  lighter 
and  more  airy.  These 
vehicles  complete  sev- 
enty-five years  ago  cost 
about  one  thousand  dol- 
lars. That  the  reader 
may  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  details,  we 
reproduce  them  from 
Felton's  work  :  "  The 
carriage  [or  running  gear]  is  a  perch  of  the  bent  or  crooked  form, 
with  iron-plated  sides ;  a  whole  wheel-front ;  an  iron  coach-box  on  a 


Town   Chariot, 


340 


ENGLISH  WOELD   ON  WHEELS. 


square  trunk-boot,  raised  on  neat  carved  blocks ;  a  raised  hind-end, 
with  neat  carved  blocks ;  a  footman  cushion,  with  plated  moldings  to 
the  frames,  and  carved  high  standards ;  hooped  tire  wheels,  with 
molded  felloes  and  common  axles  and  boxes.  The  body^  with  round 
sides,  a  sword-case  back,  contracted  door-lights,  lined  with  second 
cloth,  trimmed  with  three-and-a-half-inch  lace,  swinging  holders,  a 
pair  of  silk  squabs,  plate  glasses,  with  laced  glass  frames,  and  silk 
spring-curtains;  Venetian  blinds,  sliding  seat  boxes,  a  Wilton  carpet, 
and  double  folding  steps.  The  plating  with  silver,  a  small  three- 
eighths-inch  molding,  or  quill-bead,  in  double  rows  around  the  side 
panels,  and  in  single  row  round  the  front  and  door  lights  ;  a  half-inch 
molding  all  around  the  middle  and  roof,  up  the  corner-pillars  and  sides 
of  the  door,  and  along  the  bottom-sides  ;  four  silver  scroll  ornaments  ; 
an  octagon,  and  a  pair  of  sword-case  frames;  a  pair  of  plated  thick 
joints,  with  barrel  props  and  caps  for  them ;  eight  silver  crest  head- 
plates,  with  silver  circles ;  a  set  of  case-plated  metal  wheel-hoops ;  a 
plated  pole-hook  and  check-brace  rings,  and  five  Italian  full-plated 
lamps.  The  hammer-cloth  of  livery,  trimmed  with  a  two-and-a-half 
inch,  a  bottom  row  of  one-inch,  and  a  middle  row  of  four-inch  lace, 
one  bottom  row  of  seven-inch  ornamented  fringe ;  four  three-and-a- 
half-inch  double  lace  footmen-holders.  The  painting  'picked  out'  two 
colors  ;  the  panels  polished  ;  the  arms  on  the  doors,  and  crests  on  the 
quarters  and  stiles ;  the  main  and  check  braces  with  whole  buckles ; 
and  a  set  of  worm  springs,  with  French  pole  pieces." 

The  landaulet  was  another  very  convenient  carriage  for  a   small 
family  not  able  to  keep   more  than  one  at  a  time.     The  strongest 

objection  to  these,  and 
indeed  to  all  heavy 
carriages  where  the 
top  is  thrown  down, 
is  that  the  driver's 
seat  obstructs  the 
view  in  front,  and  de- 
prives the  passenger 
of  much  of  the  pleas- 
ure he  might  enjoy 
were  it  otherwise. 
Sometimes  these  demi-landaus,  as  they  were  occasionally  called,  car- 


Landaulet,    1796. 


POST-CHAISE,  CHARIOT,  SULKY,  AND  PHAETON.       341 


ried  a  concealed  seat  in  the  coach-box  (the  box  seen  under  the  seat) , 
put  in  its  phice,  or  taken  off  when  required,  at  the  option  of  the  owner. 
The  modern  mechanic  will  not  fail  to  notice  the  objectionable  manner 
in  which  the  lamp  is  placed  when  the  top  is  down,  and  the  strange 
taste  shown  in  the  formation  of  the  "body-loop." 

The  post-chaise,  another  carriage  much  used  by  Englishmen  in  trav- 
eling on  the  Continent,  would  be  well  represented  by  removing  the 
front  quarter  from  the  town  coach  on  page  336,  and  suppljdng  a 
standing  front  pillar  to  it  like  the  one  on  page  339. 

The  chariots,  of  which  we  give  an  illustration,  were  generally 
finished  handsomer  and  richer  than  the  coaches  of  Felton's  day,  and 
formed  a  prominent  object  in  all  showy  processions.     The  elegance  in 

these   vehicles  con-  

sisted  principally  in 
the  carved  and  gilt 
ornaments  to  the 
under-carriage,  the 
fanciful  paintings  on 
the  panels  of  the 
body,  and  the  inside 
linings  of  silk  and 
velvet. 

Felton     tells     us 

seventy-five  years  ago,  that  "A  sulk]/  is  a  light  carriage,  built  exactly 
in  the  form  of  a  post-chaise,  chariot,  or  demi-landau,  but,  like  the  vis- 
a-vis, is  contracted  on  the  seat,  so  that  only  one  person  can  sit  thereon, 
and  is  called  a  sulky ,^  from  the  proprietor's  desire  of  riding  alone." 
These  vehicles  were  lighter  in  draft  than  many  others,  being  so  narrow 
on  the  seat  that  "the  passenger  sits  more  warm,  and  is  less  incom- 
moded by  the  jolting  of  the  carriage." 

The  phaeton  variety  of  carriages  had  been  in  use  previous  to  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and,"  deservedly  regarde*d  as  the  most 
pleasant  sort  of  carriage  in  use,  as  they  contribute  more  than  any  other 
to  health,  amusement,  and  fashion,  with  the  superior  advantage  of 
lightness  over  every  other  sort  of  four-wheeled  carriage,  and  are  much 
safer,  and  are  more  easy  to  ride  in,  than  those  of  two  wheels."     Much 

^  The  sulky  of  our  day  is  quite  a  different  affair  from  tlie  one  described  by  Felton, 
but  Its  exclusive  use  by  men  has  won  for  it  the  name  of  selfish  from  the  ladies. 


342 


ENGLISH  WORLD    OK   WHEELS. 


scope  is  given,  in  the  construction,  to  fancy,  and  perhaps  in  no  other 
class  of  carriages  has  so  much  taste  been  displayed.  A  very  good 
representation  of  this  class  of  vehicles  is  found  in  the  first  illustration  on 
this  page.  They  were  hung  very  high,  and  might  very  appropriately 
be  termed  "high-fliers,"  as  we  have  seen  them  called  thirty  years  before. 
Our  example  was  known  as  the  perch-high  phaeton^  in  contradistinction 
to  the  crane-neck  phaeton ;  and  although  it  did  not  present  the  same 

facilities  for  traveling 
as  this  last,  could  be 
made  much  more  sub- 
stantial,—  a  matter  of 
no  small  importance  to 
travelers.  The  body  is, 
in  form,  the  original  of 
the  gig,  and  the  type 
has  been  a  long  time 
followed  out  in  Eng- 
land. The  most  strik- 
piiAETON,  179  6.  ji^g   peculiarity  in  this 

vehicle  to  a  modern  craftsman  is  the  manner  of  hanging  up  the  body, 
the  load  resting  almost  entirely  upon  the  forward  wheels.  The  ten- 
dency evidently  was  to  make  it  draw  heavier,  and  besides  increased 
the  danger  of  breakino;  the  front  axle-tree.  To  overcome  these  disad- 
vantages,  longer  perches  than  ordinary  were  used,  which  gave  them 
an  unartistic  appearance.  This  phaeton  was  generally  used  to  a  single 
horse.     The  cost  of  such  a  phaeton  was  £93,  or  $450. 

A  fine  example  of  a  one-horse  or  pony  phaeton  is  illustrated  in  the 
next  picture.  Felton's  remarks  in  regard  to  phaetons  generally  are  so 
sensible  and  prac- 
tical that  we  may 
profitably  repro- 
duce them  here  : 
"A  pair  of  ponies 
from  twelve  to  thir- 
teen hands  high  are 
about  equal  for 
draft  with  a  horse  po^^  phaeton. 

of  fifteen,  and  a  phaeton  of  the  same  weight  is  equally  adapted  for 


PONY-BERLIN  AND  SHOOTING  PHAETONS.  343 

either ;  excepting  only  that  each  should  be  built  of  a  proportioned 
height  for  the  advantage  of  both  horse  and  driver.  A  low  phaeton 
and  a  high  horse  are  equally  as  absurd  as  a  high  phaeton  and  a  low 
horse  ;  yet  timid  and  infirm  people  prefer  low  phaetons,  — the  infirm, 
because  they  are  easy  of  access ;  and  the  timid,  because  they  are  more 
easy  to  escape  from  in  time  of  danger,  without  considering  that  the 
danger  often  arises  from  not  having  a  proper  command  of  the  horse 
when  any  accident  occurs  to  startle  him.  Those  phaetons  are  fre- 
quently designated  for  one  horse  or  a  pair  of  ponies,  and  sometimes 
for  one  or  two  horses  alternately ;  a  medium  should  then  be  observed 
in  the  building,  that  it  be  neither  too  high  for  the  ponies  nor  too  heavy 
for  the  one  horse  ;  a  pole  and  shafts  are  then  necessary,  —  the  pole  for 
the  pair,  as  usual,  and  the  shafts  for  the  single  horse." 

Another  of  the  phaeton  class  was  called  a,  jponT/-berlin  phaeton.  The 
body  —  a  half-paneled  chaise  body  —  was  hung  a  ridiculous  distance 
from  the  horse,  on  what  was  called  a  crane-neck,  and  being  shaped 
from  the  wood  unbent,  was  very  liable  to  break.  Judging  from 
appearances,  they  were  hard-riding  contrivances.  Another  kind  was 
hung  on  "  grasshopper,"  which  has  since  assumed  the  shape  of  the  C- 
spring,  in  connection  with  the  common  perch ;  and  although  it  did  not 
answer  as  well  for  short  turning,  was  said  to  be  "a  safe,  light,  simple, 
and  cheap  four-wheeled  phaeton,"  —  four  qualities  very  desirable  in 
vehicles  at  the  present  time,  but  not  obtained  in  the  one  under  exami- 
nation, judging  from  the  drawing  made  seventy-five  years  ago.  They 
were,  however,  pronounced  "perfectly  safe," — a  decision  it  would  be 
difficult  to  contradict,  since  they  were  made  without  stint  of  material. 
The  cheapest  phaetons  cost  £40,  and  the  more  costly  about  £70. 

Another  vehicle,  just  coming  into  use  in  1796,  was  called  the  slioot- 
ing  jphaeton,  designed  for  the  Nimrods  of  that  day.  Gigs  had  pre- 
viously been  used  for  hunting  purposes,  but  two-wheeled  vehicles  were 
deemed  more  unsteady  to  shoot  from  than  four-wheeled  ones,  and 
were  therefore  getting  unpopular.  The  dogs  were  carried  in  a  box- 
like contrivance,  called  a  well,  detached  from  and  hanging  under  the 
body  over  the  springs,  back  and  front.  These  "  dog-carts "  cost 
about  $325. 

Formerly  the  sociable  or  vis-a-vis  was  classed  as  belonging  to  the 
phaeton  species,  although  sometimes  built  with  two  or  three  seats, 
capable   of  carrying  six   or  nine   passengers.      These   sociables  were 


344 


ENGLISH   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


designed  expressly  to  meet  the  wants  of  pleasure-seekers  in  the  public 
parks,  and  for  occasional  excursions  with  the  family  into  the  country. 
The  body  in  this  example  is  a  simple  combination  of  the  different  pha- 
etons we  have  previously  described,  and  at  this  distance  of  time  seem 
odd  enough.  They  frequently,  when  built,  were  made  so  as  to  allow 
of  their  being  hung  upon  the  carriage-parts  of  coaches,  chariots,  etc., 
after  removing  the  bodies  of  such.  This  avoided  the  expense  incurred 
by  keeping  two  carnages,  as  the  sociable  body  was  only  occasionally 

required.  This  socia- 
ble was  once  known  as 
"  a  three-tub-bottomed  • 
shaped  chaise,"  and  we 
are  assured  by  a  con- 
temporary author  that 
"  the  body  could  be 
built  very  light  and 
simple,  although  they 
carry  many  passen- 
gers ;  but  as  they  are 
intended  for  country 
use  only  and  in  fine  weather,  they  need  not  be  more  heavy  than  a 
common  phaeton,  and  a  great  convenience  for  large  families  may  be 
furnished  at  a  little  expense."  These  socialde  bodies  were  a  union  of 
three  other  phaeton  bodies,  with  drop-seat  boxes  to  each  and  a  sword- 
case  to  one,  and  all  built  on  one  large  bottom  formed  to  the  shape  of 
the  crane-neck,  and  cost  about  the  same  as  three  single  tub-bottom 
chaise  bodies.  The  side  quarters  were  frequently  caned,  instead  of 
being  paneled,  and  in  such  cases  the  rails  only  were  lined  and  supplied 
with  cushions  and  falls.  The  engraving  presents  us  with  the  first 
example  where  an  umbrella  was  employed,  and  is  interesting  in  this 
respect.  The  space  between  the  front  and  back  seats  was  supplied 
with  a  leather  flap,  secured  in  its  place  to  buttons.  A  folding  draw- 
step  assisted  the  passenger  to  mount  the  vehicle.  In  the  front  spring 
we  have  the  rudiments  of  the  later  elliptical  spring. 

We  now  turn  our  attention  to  some  of  the  two-wheeled  vehicles  of 
the  age  of  which  we  write,  nearly  all  being  varieties  of  the  chaise  and 
curricle.  The  curricle,  of  which  we  give  an  engraving,  was  considered 
an  improvement  on  a  former  vehicle  bearing  the  same  name.     Felton 


CUBBICLES    OF   VABIOUS  KINDS.  345 

says  of  them,  "They  are  certainly  a  superior  kind  of  two-wheeled  car- 
riage, and  from  their  novelty,  and  being  generally  used  by  persons  of 
eminence,  are  on  that  account  preferred  as  a  more  genteel  kind  of  car- 
riage than  phaetons,  though  not  possessing  any  advantage  to  be  com- 
pared with  them  except  in  lightness,  wherein  they  excel  every  other, 
having  so  great  a  power  to  so  small  a  draft.  They  are  l^uilt  much 
stronger  and  heavier  than  what  is  necessary  for  one-horse  chaises,  and 
the  larger  they  are  the  better  they  look,  if  not  to  an  extreme.     They 

are  often  made  to  be  used  with  one 
or  two  horses,    and  are    convenient 


Curricle   proper. 

when  made  so  for  traveling ;  for  if,  by  accident,  one  horse  fail,  the 
other  may  proceed  with  the  carriage  as  with  a  one-horse  chaise,  having 
the  harness  also  suitably  contrived.  It  is  only  for  occasional  purposes 
that  it  can  be  recommended,  as  a  proper-proportioned  curricle  for  two 
horses  is  much  too  heavy  to  be  frequently  used  with  one." 

These  curricles  of  Italian  origin  (Latin  curriculus)  were  of  three 
sorts,  as  the  curricle-gig  or  changeable  curricle,  the  fixed  or  proper 
curricle,  and  the  new-pattern  curricle.  The  first  was  used  either  as  a 
curricle  or  gig,  and  was  light  enough  for  a  single  horse.  The  proper 
curricle,  of  which  the  above  engraving  is  a  representation,  were  gener- 
ally OAvned  by  "persons  of  high  repute  for  fashion,  and  who  are  con- 
tinually of  themselves  inventing  some  improvements,  the  variety  of 
which  would  be  too  tedious  to  relate."  When  not  in  use  a  rest  was 
let  down  to  keep  the  pole  from  the  ground  in  all  cases.  The  draft 
was  obtained  l^y  attaching  a  long  rope  from  the  axle-tree  to  the  pole- 
crab.  The  cost  of  a  new  curricle  of  this  kind  was  about  £103,  or 
about  $500.     The  new-pattern  curricle  differed  from  the  others  in  the 


340  ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

fore  end  of  the  carriage-part  only,  where  there  are  both  shafts  and 
pole  for  a  double  security,  so  that  if  the  pole  should  break,  the  shafts 
may  support  the  carriage. 

The  new-pattern  curricle  was  brought  out  in  opposition  to  the  others, 
with  "  a  pretended  improvement,"  the  principal  object  of  which  was  to 
do  away  with  the  pole,  the  sliding,  and  the  props,  by  substituting  two 
pairs  of  shafts,  as  in  the  engraving,  in  which  the  two  horses  were 
hitched  as  in  a  chaise,  the  shafts  being  semicircular,  as  in  the  diagram, 


New-pattern    Curkicle. 


and  made  to  turn  down  "  in  the  manner  of  a  clasp-knife,  to  form  a  rest 
for  the  carriage  instead  of  the  prop ;  and  also,  if  one  of  the  horses 
should  fall  with  him,  Avithout  injury  or  incommoding  the  other  horse 
further  than  stopping  him,  in  consequence  of  the  accident." 

Forty  years  afterwards  Adams  observes,  "The  curricle  is  the  only 
two-wheeled  carriage  used  with  more  than  one  horse  abreast,  and 
therefore  approaches  nearest  in  mechanism  to  the  antique  classic  car. 
In  form,  however,  it  is  very  different.  The  shape  of  the  body  is 
extremely  unsightly.  The  hinder  curve  and  the  sword-case  are  posi- 
tively ugly.  The  elbow  and  head  are  ungracefully  formed,  and  the 
crooked  front  line  and  dashing-iron  are  in  the  worst  possible  taste. 
The  lines  of  the  carriage-frame  work  and  under-spring  are  graceful, 
but  the  mode  of  hanging  the  body  is  unsightly  and  inconvenient.  The 
step  preserves  the  general  formal  character  of  the  whole  vehicle.  The 
mode  of  attaching  the  horses  is  precisely  that  of  the  classic  car,  only 
more  elegant.  A  pole  is  fixed  to  the  square  frame,  and  is  suspended 
from  a  bright  steel  bar,  resting  in  a  fork  on  each  horse's  back.  In 
spite  of  the  ungraceful  form  of  the  vehicle,  the  effect  of  the  whole  was 
very  good.  A  seat  for  a  servant  could  be  attached  to  the  hind  frame, 
if  required.     This  carriage  fatigues  the  horses  much  less  than  one  with 


GIGS,   CURRICLES,  AND   WHISKIES. 


347 


four  wheels  [this  is  doubtful],  on  account  of  its  superior  lightness,  hut 
it  has  been  wholly  disused  of  late  years,  probably  on  account  of  the 
risk  attached  to  it  if  the  horses  become  restive.  The  whole  of  the 
security  depends  upon  the  strength  of  the  pole,  which  serves  as  a 
lever  to  sustain  the  weight  of  the  vehicle  and  passengers,  as  well  as  to 
guide  it.  It  is  not  essentially  necessary  that  the  vehicle  should  be 
ugly  in  its  form,  for  it  aflfords  facilities  for  constructing  the  most  ele- 
gant of  all  vehicles." 

Gigs,  or  one-horse  chaises,  were  nearly  all  after  the  same  pattern, 
being  distinguished  from  each  other  liy  the  terms  step-piece,  a  tub- 
bottom,  or  a  chair-back  gig.  The  term  "gig"  proper  was  distinguished 
by  hanging  the  body  on  braces  from  the  spring,  as  in  the  next  engrav- 
ing. Curricles  being  then  the  most  fashionable  style  of  two-wheeled 
vehicles,  the  bodies  of  these  were  used  in  constructing,  so  as  to  imitate 
them  as  closely  as  possible  when  hung  off,  and  these  vehicles  were 
then  called 
gig  curri- 
cles, as  seen 
here.  They 
were  de- 
signed to  be 
used  chiefly 
with  one 
horse,  al- 
though occa- 
sionally two  were  employed.  They  were  made  fully  as  light  as  the 
gig,  and  were  found  very  convenient  where  the  roads  did  not  admit  of 
two  horses  abreast.  When  two  horses  were  used,  three  sockets.  A, 
B,  C,  answered  by  which  to  secure  the  pole  to  the  vehicle.  This  car- 
riage has  what  is  called  a  "trunk-boot,"  and  C-springs  behind  and 
French-horn  springs  in  front,  the  body  resting  on  thorough-braces. 
The  gig  curricle  was  worth  £54.  The  chair-back  gig  was  hung  from 
the  "  whip  "  or  long-tail  spring  to  a  peculiarly  shaped  loop  at  the  cen- 
ter of  the  back  pillar  by  a  loop-strap.  The  front  of  the  body  was 
mounted  on  single-elbow  springs  like  those  at  the  hind  end  of  the 
sociable  on  page  344. 

"Whiskies,"  Felton  tells  us,  "are  one-horse  chaises  of  the  lightest 
construction,  with  which  the  horses  may  travel  with  ease  and  expedi- 


348 


ENGLISH   WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


Caned    Whisky 


tion,  and  quickly  pass  other  carriages  on  the  road,  for  which  they  are 
called  whiskies.'"'  These  vehicles  were  built  as  light  as  possible,  and 
hung  off  on  the  "cradle-spring"  generally,  this  then  being  pronounced 
"easy  riding."  There  were  several  kinds,  such  as  the  caned  whisky, 
half-paneled  whisky,  grasshopper-chaise  ivhisky,  and  the  whisky  cur- 
ricle. 

The  caned  whisky  was  considered  the  lightest  and  cheapest  of  all 
others,  having  a  light,  airy  appearance  for  summer  use,  although  not 

considered  as 
strong  as  the  pan- 
eled body,  "  but 
were  less  in  the  ex- 
pense for  painting 
and  lining,"  and 
chiefly  intended  for 
country  use  in  fair 
weather,  conse- 
quently they  did  not  require  tops,  aprons,  etc.,  which  go  to  swell  the 
expense  and  increase  the  weight  of  manufacture.  These  caned  whis- 
kies cost  £24  10s.,  or  about  $118. 

The  half-panel  whisky  was  in  form  very  similar  to  the  caned  one, 
with  a  sword-case,  top,  and  sometimes  with  a  place  for  a  trunk,  as  in 
the  curricle  proper.  These  were  on  what  were  formerly  known  as 
"  double-elbow  springs,"  but  in  our  day  "  cradle-springs."  The  dash, 
instead  of  being  attached  to  the  toe-board  of  the  body,  was  fastened  to 
the  front-bar  of  the  carriage.     The  step  was  a  plain  folding  one. 

The  grasshopper-chaise  whisky  is  represented  in  the  next  engrav- 
ing, after  an  old  pat- 
tern, but  Felton  says 
"a  very  good  one, 
as  all  the  framings 
form  an  agreeably 
connected  line ;  it 
being  exactly  on  the 
same  principle  as  the 

whisky,     which     was  grasshopper-chaise    whisky. 

built  from  them,  having  the  springs  in  the  same  way  fixed  to  the  axle- 
tree,  and  the  body  united  with  the  carriage,  but  only  different  in  its 


YE  ABLY  SYSTEM  OF  HIRING   CABBIAGES.  349 

shape  ;  the  framings  of  the  body  being  much  wider,  shows  more  panel , 
which  extends  to  the  shafts  at  the  corners,  and  is  arched  up  in  an 
agreeable  form  between  the  bearings.  They  have  a  more  solid  appear- 
ance than  the  whisky,  and  are  on  that  account  preferred  by  most  per- 
sons, and  in  particular  by  those  called  'Quakers,'  and  for  that  reason 
are  by  some  called  '  Quaker  chaises,'  and  by  others  serpentine  or 
sweeped-bottom  chaises.  As  they  are  built  on  so  near  a  principle  with 
the  last-described  carriage  (the  half-panel  whisky),  there  is  nothing 
more  to  recommend  them  than  the  design  and  the  superior  strength  on 
account  of  the  panels  filling  most  of  the  framings." 

The  body  of  the  whisky  curricle  was  after  the  same  pattern  as  that 
shown  in  the  gig  curricle,  and  only  difiered  in  the  carriage-part,  as  it 
was  arranged  for  one  or  two  horses,  as  might  be  required. 

At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  carriage-building  had  made 
great  advancement  in  England,  but  it  will  be  seen  that  during  the 
early  part  of  the  present  this  advancement  was  still  more  strikingly 
manifest.  The  "  struked-tire  "  (strips  of  iron  fitted  and  nailed  to  the 
felloes  in  sections,  the  joints  meeting  in  the  center  of  the  felloes),  of 
primitive  origin,  was  giving  place  to  others  of  better  form,  so  that  in 
1800  all  wheels  were  either  straked,  hooped,  or  patent-rimmed.  We 
are  told  that,  in  constant  use,  the  first  "wears  out  in  twelve  months, 
the  hoop-rimmed  wheel  in  fifteen  months,  the  patent-rimmed  wheel  in 
eighteen  months,"  provided  they  run  "five  miles  per  day  in  town  and 
eight  in  the  country,  which  is  the  shortest  time  they  may  be  expected 
to  last." 

About  this  time  a  system  of  hiring  carriages  by  the  year  appears  to 
have  sprung  up.  This  at  first  was  principally  confined  to  coaches  and 
chariots,  built  purposely  for  the  occupier,  and  finished  to  suit  his  taste 
in  the  same  manner  as  if  they  were  to  be  purchased,  and  generally 
engaged  for  four  years,  the  time  they  were  expected  to  last.  These 
were  repaired  (except  in  case  of  accident)  and  kept  by  the  builder  in 
wheels,  who  also  supplied  a  suitable  harness.  Phaetons,  curricles,  or 
chaises,  when  built  for  hire,  were,  if  only  used  six. months  in  the  sum- 
mer, charged  for  as  if  for  the  entire  year,  as  the  carriage,  being  unsal- 
able in  winter,  would  be  likely  to  lay  idle  the  remaining  half-year. 
In  fixing  the  tariif  of  charges,  the  value  of  the  vehicle  let  was  taken 
into  consideration,  and  to  that  added  the  probable  subsequent  expense 
in  repairs  during  the  period  for  which  an  engagement  was  made.     To 


350  ENGLISH    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 

get  at  the  yearly  value  for  the  hire,  the  first  costs  of  the  carriage  and 
its  subsequent  repairs  being  summed  up,  was  to  divide  the  amount  by 
one  more  number  than  the  years  in  use.  One  year's  use  was  supposed 
to  be  the  worth  of  the  carriage  to  the  builder  Avhen  returned  to  him  at 
the  expiration  of  the  engagement,  and  the  others  paid  for  the  carriage 
while  being  used.  To  illustrate  :  when  the  carriage  was  used  for  four 
years,  the  costs  were  divided  by  five  ;  if  for  three  years,  by  four ;  and 
so  on  for  a  shorter  or  longer  period.  These  contracts  bound  "  the 
executors,  administrators,  or  assignees"  of  the  parties,  except  provis- 
ion was  made  to  the  contrary  by  special  contracts  in  writing,  and  in 
no  case  could  the  coach-maker  demand  the  return  of  the  carriage  where 
an  advanced  tax  had  been  paid,  the  law  giving  to  the  occupier  a  pro- 
visionary  "fee  simple"  for  the  unexpired  term.  Carriages,  whether 
with  two  or  four  wheels,  were  charged  per  day  4s.  (84  cts.)  ;  if  on 
Sundays,  bs.  ;  or  for  a  week,  24.s.  (about  $5).  Where  a  carriage  was 
let  for  a  year  or  more,  the  occupier  paid  the  crown  duty,  but  in  no 
other  cases.  1 

It  seems  likewise  that  early  in  the  present  century  dealers  in  second- 
hand vehicles  were  regularly  organized,  whose  "tricks  in  trade"  would 
not  disgrace  some  of  our  more  modern  horse-jockeys.  Felton's  fore- 
warnings  are  so  honestly  and  faithfully  given  that  we  must  republish 
them.  He  says:  "The  great  demand  within  the  twenty  years  for 
second-hand  carriages,  for  foreign  and  home  use,  has  induced  many 
unskillful  persons  to  commence  dealers,  who  call  themselves  brokers^ 
and  pretend  to  buy  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  up  and  disposing  of 
the  old  materials,  but  who  in  general,  instead  of  breaking  up,  'vamp 
up'  and  resell  such  carriages  at  exorbitant  prices,  imposing  thereby 
both  on  the  public  and  the  trade.  The  profit  which  those  dealers  real- 
ize on  an  old  carriage  of  £50  or  £60  price  is  commonly  greater  than 
the  builder's  originally  Was  when  new,  and  often  exceeds  the  half  of 

'  In  later  years  this  system  of  selling  carriages  has  been  somewhat  changed  to  what 
is  termed  the  "three-year  system,"  under  which  the  carriage  was  kept  in  repair  for 
three  years  by  the  builder,  to  be  returned  to  him  at  the  end  of  the  term,  but  the  costs 
of  hire  were  rather  unsatisfactory  to  the  customer,  amounting  to  nearly  as  much  as 
the  purchase  outright.  To  remedy  this,  Richard  Andrews,  of  Southampton,  let  his 
carriages  for  the  same  number  of  years,  with  the  stipulation  that  when  these  had 
expired  the  carriage  became  the  property  of  the  hirer,  upon  whom  the  costs  of  repair- 
ing fell.  This  mode  of  selling  carriages  still  prevails  in  England  to  a  large  extent,  but 
in  no  other  country  that  we  are  aware  of. 


CABBIAGE-REPOSITOBY  TRADE   TRICKS.  351 

what  it  is  sold  for ;  yet  many  people  imagine,  if  the  price  is  about  one 
half  the  original  value,  the  purchase  is  reasonable,  when  in  fact  it  is 
not  worth  one  quarter  or  even  an  eighth. 

"  The  means  whereby  these  people  are  enabled  to  sell  their  carriages 
is  by  giving  them  a  good  appearance,  and  imitating  as  much  as  pos- 
sible the  fashion.  This  they  do  by  ornamenting  them,  in  particular 
with  plated  work,  new  painting,  putting  in  a  new  lining  with  some 
showy  lace,  new  wheels,  or  ringing  [tiring]  them  with  new  iron  to 
give  them  the  appearance  of  new,  adding  new  lamps,  etc.  All  the 
materials  used  for  this  purpose  are  of  the  cheapest  sort,  manufactured 
on  purpose,  but  which  to  a  person  unacquainted  look  for  the  moment 
as  well  as  the  best.  The  expense  in  fitting  is  chiefly  bestowed  in  orna- 
ment, without  in  the  least  attending  to  the  substance  of  the  carriage, 
which  is  seldom  worth  one  half  for  use  of  what  is  thus  bestowed  upon 
it  in  ornament. 

"Brokers  or  dealers  find  a  great  convenience  in  repositories,  now 
established  in  numbers,  as  they  can  there  vend  their  carriages  without 
being  questioned  as  to  their  quality,  which  might  otherwise  detect  the 
imposition ;  others  who  are  of  the  trade  sometimes  make  a  convenience 
of  a  repository  for  the  same  reason  as  the  brokers,  as  they  may  there 
vend  what  in  their  own  shops  they  would  be  ashamed  of.  From  the 
apparent  advantages  of  purchasing  from  the  repositories,  people  are 
induced  to  buy  from  them  in  preference  to  dealing  with  a  private 
trader;  but  every  person  attending  those  places  ought  to  act  with 
double  caution,  as  the  principal  stock  belongs  to  the  brokers,  or  deal- 
ers in  second-hand  carriages,  who  take  care  to  furnish  those  places 
with  a  variety  of  all  sorts.  It  is  therefore  the  interest  of  the  reposi- 
tory-keepers to  recommend  the  carriages  of  brokers  in  preference  to 
those  belonging  to  strangers,  which  not  only  serves  the  brokers,  but 
themselves ;  for  from  frequent  selling,  and  being  again  immediately 
supplied  by  the  same  parties,  nothing  is  lost  by  the  rent  for  standing, 
and  much  gained  by  commission,  while  a  stranger  who  has  but  one 
carriage  to  sell,  the  longer  it  remains  unsold  and  at  rent  the  better ; 
when  at  last  the  proprietor,  wearied  with  waiting,  and  having  the 
expense  increased,  and  the  carriage  prejudiced  by  long  standing,  is 
induced  to  accept  the  broker's  price,  who  mostly  becomes  the  pur- 
chaser. 

"Another  great  disadvantage  attending  those   places  is,  that  as  a 


352  ENGLISH  WOBLD  ON  WHEELS. 

communication  is  seldom  admitted  between  the  buyer  and  the  seller, 
they  are  both  liable  to  be  imposed  upon,  by  exacting  of  the  buyer 
more  and  paying  to  the  seller  less  than  the  carriage  was  sold  for ;  so 
that  a  considerably  greater  profit  than  that  arising  from  the  commis- 
sion and  standing  storage  may  be  derived  by  the  repository-keeper, 
without  adding  anything  to  the  value  of  the  carriage  thus  sold. 

''As  there  are  such  risks,  it  is  to  be  recommended  that  no  person 
will  purchase  from  those  places,  but  under  the  direction  of  some  suffi- 
cient tradesman,  who  may  be  competent  to  judge  of  the  real  value  of 
carriages  in  every  state  ;  for  although  a  carriage  may  look  fair  by 
being  disguised  by  paint  and  putty,  which  is  artfully  laid  on,  yet  the 
carriage  may  be  nearly  rotten,  and  ought  rather  to  be  broken  up  than 
made  use  of." 

To  sell  these  "  old  traps  "  the  ingenuity  of  the  brokers  was  taxed  to 
the  utmost,  and  it  was  no  unusual  practice  to  pretend  that  it  belonged 
to  some  nobleman  who  had  parted  with  it  because  he  had  another  more 
convenient,  or  that  the  owner  had  left  for  the  Continent,  or  was  dead. 
Another  device  was  to  put  on  some  fictitious  arms,  crests,  or  coronets, 
coupled  with  an  old  customer's  name  "  of  whom  they  had  once  bought 
a  carriage,"  and  perhaps  the  trick  was  repeated  to  sell  a  number  of  old 
carriages.  It  is  true  this  trick  could  never  take  with  Americans  ;  but 
in  England,  where  a  lord  is  looted  upon  as  "above  the  common  herd," 
the  case  is  different ;  and  as  the  fashion  did  not  change  more  than  once 
in  ten  years  or  more,  it  was  difficult  to  decide  the  age  of  a  carriage, 
even  by  experts;  the  value  could  only  be  estimated  by  the  wear 
thereof. 

The  duties  imposed  by  the  English  government  at  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century  were  onerous,  and  inimical  to  coach-making  in 
various  ways.  These  were  so  laid  that  the  more  carriages  a  gentle- 
man kept,  the  heavier  in  proportion  he  was  taxed.  On  a  four-wheeled 
vehicle  the  tax  was  £8  10s.  ($41)  annually;  and  should  the  same 
owner  have  a  second  carriage,  on  that  he  was  taxed  £9  18s.  ($48)  ; 
and  if  a  third  or  more,  on  them  he  paid  £12  ($58.20)  each.  The  duty 
on  two-wheeled  vehicles  was  uniformly  £3  17s.,  or  about  $18.44. 
The  coach-builders  were  also  made  to  pay  20.s-.  for  every  four-wheeled 
carriage,  and  10s.  for  every  two-wheeled  cart,  those  used  for  business 
excepted.  So  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  trade  did  these  taxes 
operate,  it  is  said  that  more  than  half  the  members  belonging  to  the 


NINE  TEE  NTH-CENT  UB  Y  IMPB  0  VEMEN  TS. 


353 


Coach,    1805. 


different  branches  felt  ji  necessity  for  engaging  in  some  other  branch 
of  business  to  get  a  livelihood.  The  reduction  of  these  taxes  twenty- 
five  years  afterwards  saved  the  business  from  entire  destruction,  and 
gave  a  new  impulse  to  coach-making,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  coach 
annexed,  where 
the  design  is  very 
much  altered  and 
improved,  al- 
though still  with 
some  imperfec- 
tions. Should  the 
reader  compare 
this  with  the  one 
on  page   336,  he 

will  find  that  instead  of  being  larger  at  the  top,  the  bodies  had  run 
into  the  other  extreme,  and  become  wider  in  the  center  and  narrower 
on  the  roof,  with  increased  swell  to  the  side  panels.  The  C-sprino- 
had  also  been  invented,  and  in  many  respects  the  coaches  of  1805  were 
not  inferior  to  those  of  the  present  day.  If  not  quite  as  profusely 
ornamented,  yet  it  was  much  more  chaste  and  neat  than  its  prede- 
cessor previously  referred  to.  The  price  of  this  coach  was  £231,  or 
about  $1,118. 

The  next  most  popular  vehicle  was  the  post-chariot  for  town  and 
country,  which  cost  £202,  or  aliout  $978.  In  this  design  the  sweep 
of  the  crest  panel  is  in  bad  taste,  and  the  body  on  the  whole  not  much 

improved  over  the 
one  on  page  341. 
The  springs  are  an 
accommodation  of 
the  old  whip  or  S- 
spring  to  the  form 
of  tho  C-spring  just 
then  coming  into 
fashion,  and  show- 

1-  U  S  T  -  C  II  A  II  1  O  T  ,      X  0  U  0  . 

ing  the  progress  of 
art  at  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Hero  wo  find  tho 
bear-skin  hammer-cloth  for  the  first  time,  which  in  traveling  was  pref- 
erable to  that  of  livery  then  in  common  use,  and  this  was  frequently 


354  ENGLISH  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

orncamented  with  metal  claws  at  the  corners.  It  was  quite  fiishionable 
then  in  painting  to  finish  the  carriage  with  "  oil  varnish,"  whatever 
that  may  have  been. 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  our  history  when  phaetons,  for- 
merly so  popular,  had  almost  entirely  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  were 
superseded  by  the  jaunting-car,  and  the  German  wagon  or  barouche, 
although  the  curricle  and  whisky  still  maintained  their  popularity. 
The  improvement  in  the  curricle  in  the  course  of  twenty  years  may  be 
seen  by  comparing  the  improved  curricle  with  the  one  on  page  345. 

The  form  of  the 
body  differs  but 
very  little,  but  the 
C-springs  and  com- 
passed  or  bent 
shafts  of  ash  are 
much  more  grace- 
ful. Here,  too,  first 

Improved  Curricle.  .i  . 

appears  the  toe- 
spring  (called  in  England  the  elbow)  still  retained  in  many  of  the  gigs 
turned  out  from  modern  shops.  The  "rumbler"  has  been  shaped  to 
accommodate  it  to  the  C-spring,  and  the  step,  as  a  further  improve- 
ment, is  booted  with  leather,  and  has  a  metal  cap  put  over  the  axle- 
nuts.  The  old  sword-case  of  our  boyhood  "  sticks  out "  in  all  its  mag- 
nificence.    The  cost  of  a  ncAV  curricle  was  £94,  or  about  $455.^ 

A  contemporary  says  of  the  jaunting-car ^  "  This  sort  of  carriage  is 
quite  novel  in  this  country  [England],  but  from  its  convenience  is 
likely  to  become  general.  Its  construction  is  light  and  roomy,  with 
seats  all  round,  and  a  seat  in  front  for  the  driver,  which  mostly  is  the 
proprietor  of  it.  It  is  capacious  enough  to  hold  from  four  to  six 
persons  besides  the  driver,  and  so  light  that  one  strong  horse  is  suffi- 
cient for  the  draft,  though  another  may  be  added,  either  abreast  or 
as  a  leader,  in  the  manner  of  a  tandem,  if  required.     It  is  a  carriage 

'  ' '  The  most  celebrated  curricle  of  the  last  century  was  built  of  copper,  iu  the  shape 
of  a  sea-shell,  aud  was  driven  by  that  caricature  of  dandies,  Romeo  Coates.  The  last 
curricle  about  town  was  Count  d'Orsay's ;  and  although  the  shape  of  the  body  of  the 
carriage  was  inelegant,  the  effect  of  that  kind  of  beplated  luxury  was  very  striking 
when  the  horses  were  perfect  and  the  harness  gorgeous  and  well  varnished. "  —  All  the 
Year  Bound. 


IRISH  JAUNTING-CAR.  355 

well  adapted  for  a  party  on  pleasure,  or  as  a  family  airing-carriage 
in  i3arks,  etc.,  and  supersedes  the  sociable."  It  may  have  a  head  if 
required,  but  ever}i;hing  that  gives  weight  should  be  avoided.  This 
car  is  mounted  upon  "  long  double-elbow  springs,  extending  from  the 
fore  to  the  hind 
bar,  but  the  body 
must  be  framed 
on  the  carriage 
[s  h  a  ft  s] ,  and 
have  only  grass- 
hopper springs 
under  the  shafts, 
which    will     be  jaunting-car,  1805. 

both  lighter  and  cheaper,  but  not  so  elegant  or  easy.  There  is  in 
general  no  lining  or  stuffing  inside,  only  cushions  for  the  seats,  the 
bodies  being  generally  caned,  but  are  sometimes  railed  or  paneled." 
The  cost  of  the  best  in  Felton's  time  was  about  $235.  In  our  times 
jaunting-cars  to  an  Irishman  have  special  charms,  and  Avhen  driven  by 
a  good-natured  "Paddy"  are  not  without  some  interest  to  a  stranger. 
We  have  one  in  New  York  of  Irish  manufjicture,  but  the  sea-voyage 
to  which  it  was  necessarily  subjected  appears  to  have  taken  the  ro- 
mance out  of  it  entirely.  Yery  few  Americans  care  to  ride  in  it. 
Besides  this,  for  an  Irishman  it  requires  the  surroundings  he  finds  on 
"  the  old  sod  "  to  make  its  use  pleasant  and  interesting. 

Cars  in  Ireland  are  of  three  descriptions,  —  the  covered  car,  and  the 
inside  and  outside  jaunting-cars.  Covered  cars  are  of  comparatively 
recent  introduction,  being  in  fact  the  hackney-cabs  of  the  larger  towns, 
their  sole  recommendation  being  that  they  are  water-proof;  for  they 
effectually  prevent  any  view  of  the  country,  except  through  two  small 
windows  in  front,  or  by  tying  back  the  oil-skin  curtain  in  the  rear. 
The  inside  jaunting-car  differs  from  the  outside  jaunting-car  in  being 
rather  more  closed  at  the  sides,  both  being  open  vehicles,  or,  as  the 
Americans  say,  without  tops. 

The  outside  jaunting-cars,  which  are  in  European  eyes  lightly  con- 
structed, are  the  cars  jpar  excellence  of  Ireland.  They  invariably  are 
drawn  by  a  single  horse,  the  driver  occupying  a  small  seat  in  front. 
A  recent  traveler,  looking  at  these  cars  from  an  inimical  standpoint, 
tells  us  that  "  the  floor  is  composed  of  a  few  boards,  the  box  having 


356  ENGLISH    WOULD    ON   WHEELS. 

two  sides,  which  are  raised  up  and  down  on  hinges,  raised  for  no  other 
use,  that  I  can  see,  except  it  be  to  grease  the  wheels.  The  sides  are 
of  canvas,  stitched  on  wooden  frames,  which  drop  from  the  edge  of  a 
seat,  and  have  a  foot-board  at  the  bottom  of  the  frame.  The  backs  of 
the  two  seats  form  a  narrow  well,  as  it  is  termed,  for  the  storage  of 
luggage  in  the  center,  a  name  by  no  means  inappropriate,  as  it  is  gen- 
erally full  of  water  when  it  rains.  ...  If  the  car  has  its  full  fare 
of  four  persons,  and  the  Hibernian  Jehu  must  in  that  case  keep  to  his 
stool,  it  may  happen  that,  twitching  the  mouth  of  his  jaded  beast  by 
way  of  coaxing  him  into  a  trot,  he  pokes  his  elbow  into  his  neighbor's 
face,  with  which  it  is  just  on  a  level.  With  this  number,  in  going  up 
hill,  the  whole  weight  of  the  front  passenger  falls  upon  him  in  the  rear, 
which  is  by  no  means  agreeable,  particularly  if  he  should  chance  to  be 
a  heavy  one ;  and  the  same  thing  must  happen  to  the  front  passenger 
in  o-oino-  down  hill."  If  there  be  but  one  in  the  car,  the  driver  inquires, 
"  An  which  side  of  the  country  would  your  honor  like  to  see  ?  "  Then 
quitting  his  seat  in  front,  he  perches  himself,  very  much  at  ease,  cross- 
legged  on  the  opposite  side  as  ballast.  This,  however,  does  not  pre- 
vent his  customer's  shifting  to  the  front  end  of  his  seat  in  going  down 
hill,  nor  his  involuntary  thrust  to  the  other  extremity  in  going  up. 
To  encourage  the  passenger,  he  is  told,  "Och,  your  honor  Avill  aisily 
fall  into  the  way  of  that." 

One  Bianconi,  recently  deceased,  has  become  famous  in  connection 
with  his  car  system,  established  in  Ireland  in  1815.  This  gentleman 
built  his  own  cars  at  his  factory  at  Clonmell.  His  charges  at  first 
varied  from  one  penny  to  twopence-halfpenny  per  mile,  according  to 
the  quantity  of  business  on  the  road  and  the  speed  of  the  car,  which  at 
the  slowest  was  six  miles  an  hour,  and  at  the  quickest  nine.  He  took 
much  pains  to  have  his  vehicles  furnished  with  comfortable  horse-hair 
cushions,  in  wet  weather  changing  them  every  two  stages. 

In  their  work  on  Ireland,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall  thus  refer  to  the 
incalculable  benefits  Mr.  Bianconi  has  conferred  on  the  citizens  by  his 
system  :  "In  the  interior  of  the  country,  from  which  the  farmers  come 
to  the  little  villages,  they  have  only  a  few  places  for  obtaining  their 
commodities,  and  at  an  enormous  rate ;  but  since  the  introduction  of 
these  cars,  people  in  business,  who  hitherto  were  obliged  to  go  to 
market  at  a  very  heavy  expense,  which  prevented  their  doing  so  fre- 
quently, now  find  their  way  to  the  larger  towns,  and  have  been  enabled 


BAROUCHE  AND   TELEGBAPH. 


357 


to  secure  supplies  iit  once  from  the  first-cost  market ;  and  from  the 
cheapness  of  bringing  the  articles  home,  they  were  enabled  to  reduce 
their  prices  considerabh",  and  in  those  districts  the  consumption  has 
in  consequence  wonderfully  augmented,  and  shops  or  fresh  sources  of 
competition  continually  increase,  thereby  enabling  parties  to  use  arti- 
cles hitherto  inaccessible  to  them.  A  great  saving  of  time  is  also 
effected  ;  for  example,  it  took  a  man  a  whole  day  to  walk  from  Thurles 
to  Clonmell,  the  second  day  to  transact  his  business,  and  the  third 
to  walk  back ;  now,  for  seven  shillings,  he  purchases  two  clear  days, 
saves  himself  the  trouble  of  walking  sixty  English  miles,  and  has  four 
or  five  hours  to  transact  his  business." 

On  page  329  we  have  illustrated  the  earlier  English  barouche.  In 
the  next  engraving  we  give  an  improved  design,  constructed  much 
lighter.  This  be- 
came very  popular 
with  the  "  sporting 
bloods  "  of  the  pe- 
riod in  visiting  the 
race-courses,  when 
the  proprietor  gen- 
erally acted  as  dri- 
ver, having  in  all 
such  cases  a  shift- 
ing dickey-seat  pro- 
vided for  that  pur- 
pose, as  seen  in  the  picture.  One  striking  peculiarity  in  this  vehicle 
is,  the  hanging-oif  loops  are  continued  the  entire  length  of  the  body 
on  the  lower  edge  of  the  bottom  side.  This  gave  strength  and  solidity 
to  the  whole,  which  was  highly  gratifying  to  the  public  at  a  time  when 
the  people  were  less  regardless  of  danger  than  in  modern  times.  The 
price  of  this  barouche  was  £200,  or  about  $968. 

The  telegraph  was  a  singular  vehicle,  sometimes  used  as  a  dog-cart. 
These  carriages  were  made  after  different  patterns,  with  large  bottoms 
for  the  stowage  of  dogs  used  in  hunting.  Some  of  these  bodies 
were  full  paneled  and  fancifully  molded  off,  and  nearly  all  built  upon 
the  shafts,  in  the  manner  of  the  jaunting-cars  previously  noticed.  We 
have  illustrated  the  mf)st  fashionable  style  of  the  telegraph,  the  lower 
part  of  the  body  of  which  is  made  after  the  prevailing  design  for  a 


Barouche,    1805. 


358 


ENGLISH   WOULD   ON  WHEELS. 


TEIiEGK  APH: 


Salisbury  boot  to  coaches,  and  is  furnished  with  what  was  known  as 
the  barouche  seat.     Our  example  is  hung  on  four  long  steel  springs, 

two  attached  to  the  carriage-part,  par- 
allel with  the  hind  and  fore  bars,  unitinsr 
at  the  extremities 
by  cross  -  shackles. 
Some  others  were 
hung  upon  long  bot- 
tom springs  con- 
necting with  the 
carriage  -  part  by 
short  scroll-springs, 
having  long  braces  from  the  jacks  behind  to  the  loops  forward.  The 
price  for  a  telegraph  was  £64,  or  about  $310. 

A  score  of  years  had  now  passed  since  Felton's  exposition  of  some 
of  the  "tricks  of  trade"  had  been  given,  but  instead  of  improvement 
we  still  see  rascality  flourishing  in  a  new  phase.  We  now  find  that 
"the  encouragement  given  by  the  public  to  repositories  has  induced 
many  persons  no  Avay  connected  Avith  the  trade  to  speculate  in  supply- 
ing them  with  articles  of  the  most  abominable  kind,  and  which  may 
properly  be  termed  gingerbread  carriages  ;  and  now  that  a  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  fashions,  a  fresh  opportunity  presents  itself  for 
vending  their  gay  painted  trash  ;  and  though  many  have  bought  expe- 
rience from  those  places,  yet  a  caution  is  necessary  to  prevent  those 
who  have  not  yet  been  taken  in  by  them. 

"Those  places  are  principally  supplied  by  persons  working  in  gar- 
rets or  kitchens,  who  vamp  anything  up  for  sale  that  can  safely  go  in 
and  out  of  the  repository  without  failure  ;  and  many  old  carriages 
which  ought  to  be  broken  up  are  dressed  up  in  a  fashionable  style  and 
frequently  sold  there  for  as  much  as  would  have  purchased  a  ucav  one 
from  a  coach-maker.  The  facility  with  which  gentlemen  are  supplied 
induces  them  to  attend  those  places  ;  but  as  caution  is  necessary,  none 
should  purchase  from  them  except  on  the  recommendation  of  a  respec- 
table tradesman,  in  particular  those  new-fashioned  fitted-up  carriages. 
Gentlemen,  likewise,  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  fraudulent  jirac- 
tices  of  those  places,  are  induced  to  send  their  old  carriages  there  for 
sale  ;  but  unless  a  price  is  put  on  them  as  the  repository-keeper  thinks 
will  put  an  extraordin.-iry  profit  in  his  pocket,  it  may  stand  till  the 


OBADIAH  ELLIOTTS  IMPROVEMENTS. 


359 


expense  thereof  amounts  to  its  value,  when  it  comes  into  his  hands 
without  his  advancing  a  shilling ;  as  their  own  stock,  or  that  of  their 
regular  customers,  is  always  certain  of  having  the  best  recommenda- 
tion, although  not  half  the  value  of  the  others.  It  may  appear  incred- 
ible, but  can  be  affirmed  on  oath  if  desired,  that  carriages  to  a  superfi- 
cial observer  shall  appear  alike  in  every  respect,  and  one  shall  cost 
nearly  double  the  sum  which  the  other  did.  Hence  arises  the  opinion 
that  the  repositories  are  cheaper  than  the  manufacturers  ;  but  the  one, 
having  credit  to  preserve,  builds  of  good  materials;  the  other  deals 
for  ready  money  only,  and  mostly  sells  his  goods  and  customers  at  one 
time" 

A  coach-maker  of  London,  one  Obadiah  Elliott,  in  1805  obtained  a 
patent  for  "  certain  improvements  in  the  construction  of  coaches,  char- 
iots, barouches,  landaus, 
and  various  other  four- 
wheel  carriages,  without 
a  perch " ;  and  in  the 
drawings  illustrating  his 
specifications,  we  for  the 
first  time  find  something 
that  looks  like  the  elliptic 
spring  applied  to  a  vehi- 
cle. It  is  true  that  we 
have  an  inkling  of  the 
future  mechanical  perfec-  o.  Elliott's  chariot,  isos. 

tion  in  the  front  part  of  the  sociable  on  page  344,  and  as  the  result  of 
our  researches  give  it  as  our  opinion  that  this  ne  plus  ultra  of  inven- 
tions is  the  growth  of  several  years. 

About  the  time  of  Elliott's  invention,  a  gentleman  in  England 
secured  a  patent  "  whereby  persons  riding  in  carriages  may  on  occa- 
sions, and  in  circumstances  of  imminent  danger,  liberate  themselves 
and  escape  impending  danger  by  freeing  the  horse  or  horses  instantly 
from  the  carriage  ;  and  in  case  of  two-wheeled  carriages,  causing  them 
to  stand  in  the  same  horizontal  position  as  they  were  before  the  horse 
or  horses  were  freed  from  them,  by  the  carriage  stopping  in  the  space 
of  a  few  yards,  without  any  violent  concussion  or  danger  of  overturn- 
ing the  person  in  the  carriage,  who  may  sit  the  whole  time  with  perfect 
ease  and  safety."     We  give  a  condensed  description  of  it :  — 


360  ENGLISH  WOBLD   OW  WHEELS. 

When  applied  to  a  curricle,  which  we  have  lately  seen  was  quite 
popular  in  England,  the  splinter-bar  was  made  of  the  best  seasoned 
ash,  with  a  recess  formed  in  the  back  of  it  to  receive  an  iron  shaft  or 
spindle,  half  an  inch  in  diameter,  of  two  lengths,  to  which  were  fixed 
four  iron  hooks,  one  at  the  end  of  each  shaft,  moving  in  a  circular 
position;  also  an  iron  lever,  with  two  flanges,  one  of  which  was  fixed 
to  each  shaft  by  nuts  and  screws.  That  part  of  the  apparatus  which 
fell  to  the  ground  to  assist  in  stopping  the  carriage  was  called  the 
"anchor."  This  was  made  of  wood  and  iron,  or  iron  alone,  fixed  to 
the  axle-tree  by  two  couplings  on  each  side,  nine  inches  from  the 
center,  Avith  small  holes  in  them,  sufficient  to  admit  an  iron  pin,  which 
passing  through  the  two  iron  flanges  attached  to  the  anchor  as  well  as 
through  the  couplings ;  the  anchor  by  that  means  moved  from  the 
center  of  the  small  iron  pin  at  the  axle-tree,  the  lever  resting  on  the 
anchor,  as  it  might  either  be  enclosed  in  a  groove  made  to  receive  it 
on  the  upper  side  of  said  anchor,  or  the  lever  might  be  so  constructed 
as  to  lay  on  each  side  of  the  anchor  supported  l^y  bolts  or  rollers.  By 
this  means,  when  the  apparatus  Avas  raised  as  high  as  the  carriage 
Avould  admit  of,  it  Avas  secured  in  position  by  a  spring  bolt,  to  which 
AA^as  attached  a  strap  leading  into  the  carriage,  Avhicli  in  supposed  dan- 
ger Avas  pulled,  freeing  the  anchor  and  lever,  thereby  stopping  and 
supporting  the  carriage.  For  carriages  Avith  four  Avheels  the  apparatus 
Avas  the  same,  except  the  fixing  of  the  anchor,  Avhich  to  be  effective 
Avas  to  be  placed  upon  the  hind  axle-tree  or  the  perch,  and  Avhich,  the 
moment  it  fell  to  the  ground,  steadied- the  carriage  and  prevented  its 
SAverving  from  the  road.  By  means  of  tAvo  iron  flukes  attached  to  the 
anchor,  the  carriage  Avas  stopped  Avithin  twelve  yards  ! 

The  Stanhope  came  into  use  somcAvhere  about  1815,  and  received 
its  name  from  the  inventor,  Hon.  Fitzroy  Stanhope,  a  brother  of  the 

Earl  of  Harrington.  It  was  j)opu- 
lar  in  England  for  a  short  period,  and 
not  long  after  adopted  in  America, 
but  has  since  been  laid  aside.  The 
body  rests  on  two  cross  springs,  the 
ends  of  Avhich  are  suspended  from  the 
Stanhope  Gig.  ^  °  tAvo  side  oucs.  This  arrangement 
gives  an  easy  motion  to  the  rider,  but  is  very  hard  on  the  horse's 
back,  on  account  of  the  concussion  of  the.  wheels  on  rouoh  roads. 


TILBUEY  AND   CUBRICLE  PHAETON. 


361 


"The  connection  between  the  side  and  cross  springs,"  Adams  says, 
"was  formerly  merely  links,  as  in  ordinary  stage-coaches; 
but  the  jingling  noise  soon  caused  noiseless  shackles  to  be  con- 
tinued, working  on  smooth  centers."  Leather  braces  have  since 
been  substituted  as  l^eing  still  less  noisy.  Our  engraving  gives  the 
general  features  of  a  Stanhope,  from  which  there  has  been  but  little 
change  since. ^ 

The  next  engraving  represents  a  Tilbury,  invented  by  a  carriage- 
builder  of  that  name,  which,  being  much  lighter  than  the  Stanhope, 
was  very  popular  at  one  period,  al- 
though, like  it,  very  hard  on  the  horse. 
Originally  these  are  said  to  have  been 
made  without  springs  and  hung  on 
thorough-ljraces,  like  the  gig,  of 
which  these  two-wheeled  vehicles  are 
but  modifications.     The  cross-spring  tilbuky. 

of  the  Stanhope  in  this  instance  is  fixed  on  the  top  of  an  iron  frame, 
secured  to  the  back  ends  of  the  long  shafts,  its  peculiar  arrangement 
making  it  liable  to  twist  by  the  uneven  movements  of  the  vehicle. 

Although  this  carriage 
looks  lighter,  it  is  said 
to  weigh  more  than 
the  Stanhope,  by  rea- 
son of  the  great  weight 
of  iron  required  in  the 
construction,  having 
altogether  seven 
springs  and  other 
weighty  fixtures  about  it.  Messrs.  Hooper  &  Co.,  of  London,  inform 
us  that  this  vehicle  dates  from  about  1828. 

The  engraving  on  next  page  represents  an  English  curricle  phaeton 
of  about  the  year  1815.  We  suppose  it  receives  the  name  "  curricle" 
from  the  shape  of  the  body,  and  "  phaeton  "  because  it  is  set  on  four 
wheels,  the  combination  making  a  very  useful  carriage  for  the  times 
in  which  it  originated.     The  manner  in  which  the  lamp  is  secured  to 

'  This  and  the  next  design  were  furnished  by  Messrs.  Hooper  &  Co.,  of  London. 
Charles,  Earl  Stanhope,  was  the  inventor  of  numerous  useful  articles,  among  which  is 
the  printing-press,  which  bears  his  name.     Born  1790 ;  died  1807. 


Rear    View. 


362 


ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


the    front-pillar   is   worthy   of  notice,   as  being  placed   in  the    most 
favorable  position  for  effective  illumination,  and  out  of  the  way  of  the 

passenger  on  entering  the  phaeton, — a 
^^^^^^  matter    often    overlooked    by    coach- 

"    V^^  J  builders. 

^  I         Jj  In  the  year  1818,  A.  Ackerman,  a 

X  ^  f"""^  London   publisher,    secured   a   patent 

for  a  movable  front  axle  for  carriages, 
which  he  claimed  possessed  such  im- 
portant   advantages    over    all    others 
^  then  in  use,  that  "it  cannot  fail  in  a 
CuHKicLE  Phaeton.  short  time  to  be  considered  indispen- 

sably necessary  to  four-wheeled  carriages  of  every  kind,"  because  it 
could  be  turned  in  a  very  limited  space,  and  besides  allowed  a  shorter 
coupling  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  inches,  thereby  diminishing  the  draft, 
giving  it  security ;  allowing 
of  higher  front  wheels  and 
hanging  the  body  lower ;  it 
was  not  so  easily  broken  as 
the  stiff  axle,  required  only 
six  pieces,  including  the 
pole,  whereas  on  the  old  plan 
twenty  were  used.  To  crown 
all,  the  inventor  says,  "The 
light  and  airy  appearance, 
the  beauty  of  good  lines, 
combined  with  solidity,  have 
always  been  with  gentlemen 
of  taste  and  the  coach-maker 
of  ingenuity  the  principal 
object  in  the  building  of  car- 
riages. All  these  qualities 
are  here  combined  in  one 
simple  but  most  valuable  in- 
vention, producing  at  once 
safety,  ease,  and  elegance." 
This  was  indorsed  by  George  Lankensperger,  of  Munich,  coach- 
maker  to  his  Majesty  the  King  of  Bavaria,  who  had  "experimented" 


Ackerman 's   Movable    Axle. 


POST-CHAISE  AND  BBITZSCHA    CHABIOT. 


363 


PO  ST-CHAISI 


with  it  on  numerous  customers  of  his  among  the  aristocracy  of  that 
kingdom. 

The  next  engraving  represents  a  chaise-de-jjoste,  or  post-chaise, 
built  by  Adams  &  Hooper,  of  London,  about  1825.  This,  for  a  short 
journey  into  the  country  previous  to 
the  institution  of  railways,  was  a 
very  convenient  carriage  for  a  small 
party,  as  well  as  easy  riding,  it  being 
suspended  upon  C-springs.  In  this 
instance  three  lamps  are  employed, 
sufficiently  indicative  of  bad  roads. 
At  the  hind  end  is  fixed  a  seat  for 
two  servants,  and  in  front  a  box,  answering  at  the  same  time  the  jiur- 
poses  of  a  driver's  seat  and  trunk  for  baggage. 

Another  carriage  for  Continental  travel  is  seen  in  the  next  illustra- 
tion.    In  Europe  it  is  called  an  eilwagen,  or  hritzscha  chariot,  which 

Adams  tells  us  "  is  distinguished 
from  the  ordinary  posting  chariot 
by  the  form  of  the  body,  the  lower 
part  of  which  is  shaped  something 
like  a  britzscha."  This  drawing 
represents  the  chariot  built  by 
Messrs.  Adams  &  Hooper,  of  Lon- 
don, for  the  Earl  of  Winchelsea, 
in  1825.  The  box  under  the  seat 
extends  the  body  so  that  there  is 
ample  room  to  lie  at  full  length  while  traveling,  the  folding  steps  being 
placed  outside  and  out  of  the  way  of  the  sleeper.  This  and  the  pre- 
vious carriage  have  lamps  placed  behind  for  the  convenience  of  readers 
at  night.  An  imperial  is  fixed  on  the  roof  for  carrying  baggage,  in 
addition  to  other  conveniences  found  in  the  post-chaise. 

The  first  railway  coach  in  England,  built  after  a  design  by  George 
Stephenson,  was  started  as  a  passenger  coach  on  the  Stockton  and 
Darlington  Railway,  Oct.  10,  1825.  It  was  drawn  by  a  single  horse 
twelve  miles  in  two  hours,  fare  one  shilling,  and  called  the  "Experi- 
ment," which  proved  so  successful  that  old  stage  bodies,  mounted  on 
under  frames,  with  flange  wheels,  were  improvised  to  accommodate 
the  public.     This,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  end,  proved  the  death  of 


Britzscha    Chariot, 


364 


ENGLISH   WOBLD   ON   WHEELS. 


post-coaches  used  by   Continental  travelers.      In   Smiles's  "Life  of 
George  Stephenson "  occurs  the  following  passage  :  — 

"There  were  two  separate  coach  companies  in  Stockton,  and  amus- 
ing collisions  sometimes  occurred  between  the  drivers,  who  found  on 
the  rail  a  novel  element  of  contention.  They  could  not  pass  each 
other  as  on  the  road,  and  as  the  line  was  single,  with  four  sidings  in 
the  mile,  when  two  coaches  met,  or  two  trains,  the  question  arose 
which  of  the  drivers  should  go  back.  This  was  not  always  settled  in 
silence.  As  to  trains,  it  came  to  be  a  sort  of  understanding  that 
empty  should  give  way  to  loaded  wagons ;  and  as  to  trains  and 
coaches,  that  passengers  should  have  preference  over  coals ;  while 
coaches,  when  they  met,  must  quarrel  it  out."     At  length,  midway 


First   Engmsh   Railway   Coach. 

between  sidings  a  post  was  erected,  and  the  rule  was  laid  down  that 
he  who  had  passed  the  pillar  must  go  on,  and  the  "coming  man"  go 
back.  At  the  Goose  Pool  and  Early  Nook  it  was  common  for  the 
coaches  to  stop,  and  there,  as  Jonathan  would  say,  passengers  and 
coachmen  "  liquored."  One  coach,  introduced  by  an  innkeeper,  was  a 
compound  of  two  mourning-coaches,  —  an  approximation  to  the  real 
railway  coach  which  still  adheres,  with  multiplying  exceptions,  to  the 
stage-coach  type.  One  Dixon,  who  drove  the  "Experiment"  between 
Darlington  and  Shildon,  is  the  inventor  of  carriage  lighting  on  the  rail. 
On  a  dark  winter  night,  having  compassion  on  his  passengers,  he 
would  buy  a  candle,  and  place  it,  lighted,  among  them  on  the  table  of 


CHABVOLANT  OB    WIND-CABBIAGE. 


365 


the  "Experiment,"  the  first  coach  that  indulged  its  customers  with  light 
at  night.  And  this  idea  probably  was  suggested  by  the  practice  of 
hanging  a  lamp  at  the  rear  window  of  a  post-chaise  or  chariot  in  trav- 
eling. 

In  1826  Col.  Vincy  and  G.  Pocock  patented  a  carriage,  to  be 
moved  along  by  the  mere  force  of  the  Avind  acting  upon  one  or  more 
kites  attached  to  the  carriage,  which  they  called  a  charvolant,  a  picture 
of  which  is  here  given.  The  kite,  a,  is  jointed  in  the  middle  so  that 
it  may  be  folded  up  and  put  away 
when  not  in  use.     The  cords,  b,b, 

b,  b,  regulate  the  position  of  the 
kite  and  assist  the  steerage,  for 
which  purpose  the  ends  of  the 
cords  pass  through  the  dead-eye, 

c,  to  the  hands  of  the  passenger, 
who  shortens  or  lengthens  them  at 
will,  so  as  to 


turn  the  car 
either  to  the 
right  or  left. 
By  the  cross 
handle,  e,  and 
the  stem,  €,f, 
which  acts  on 
the  axis  of  the 
fore  wheels  l)y 
means  of  an 
endless  band 
or  cord  pass- 
ing about  a 
pulley,  /,  and 

fixed  on  the  lower  end  of  the  stem,  e,f,  and  the  pulley,  g,  fixed  on  to 
the  bed  of  the  axle-tree  of  the  fore  wheels,  the  machine  is  stopped  or 
its  motion  retarded  by  the  drag,  k,  which  is  attached  to  the  perch  by 
a  spring  to  keep  it  off  the  ground  until  needed,  when  the  fluke  end  is 
pressed  into  the  earth  by  the  lever,  //,  acting  on  the  connecting  piece, 
^.  This  machine,  like  a  great  many  others  invented  by  "  outsiders," 
is  of  little  service  in  practical  use. 


ViNEY     AND     POCOCK'S     ChARVOLANT. 


366 


ENGLISH  WOBLD    ON  WHEELS. 


A  late  writer  tells  us  that  English  carriage  constructors,  as  a  class, 
are  not  an  inventive  race,  they  having  only  given  names  to  the  whisky, 
gig,  Stanhope,  Tilbury,  Dennet,  buggy,  and  jaunting-car,  all  other 
varieties  having  a  foreign  origin,  six  of  those  named  being  only  varia- 
tions of  the  same  thing.  This,  however,  is  no  proof  that  they  are 
lacking  in  inventive  talent. ^ 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  our  history  where  Continental 
traveling  was  at  its  height  by  the  nobility  of  England.  The  next  four 
illustrations  will  show  with  how  much  success  the  British  coach-build-^ 
ers  were  supplying  the  needed  requirements  of  their  customers  when 
the  construction  of  railways  abroad  changed  the  entire  order  of  things, 

and  jDut  an  end  to  a  very 
profitable  trade,  as  pre- 
viously hinted. 

The  first  design  repre- 
sents a  chariot  of  singular 
construction,  which  when  in 
use  served  the  purposes  of 
a  lodffing-house  at  night  as 

__^  well  as  a  traveling  carriage, 

TRAVELING  Chariot.  the    extension   beneath  the 

driver's  seat  supplying  the  additional  space  required  for  the  sleeper's 
foet.     The  accommodations  in  this  vehicle  were  extremely  limited,  the 
requisite  boxes  and  "  other  fixings  "  for  transporting  luxuries  in  long 
journeys    being 
conspicuous   by 
their  absence. 

The  second 
design  repre- 
sents a  traveling 
coach  of  more 
shoAvy  preten- 
sions, having,  in 
addition  to  the 
sleeping  ar- 
rangements      of  Continental  Traveling   Coach, 


'  See  William  B.  Adams's  English  Pleasure-carriages,  p.  156. 


CHARIOTS   FOB   CONTINENTAL    TRAVELING. 


36T 


the  foregoing,  a  rumble  added  for  the  accommodation  of  the  servants 
attendant  upon  "  his  honor  "  when  abroad.  The  drag-chain  secured  to 
tlie  reach  is  indicative  of  uneven  roads,  in  hinds  where  age  might  have 
served  to  have  leveled  them.  Adams,  in  referring  to  these  posting 
vehicles,  informs  us  that  "the  lamps  are  black,  and  made  to  shift  and 
hide  the  glass  in  the  daytime.  For  town  use,  the  traveling  furniture 
can  be  shifted,  and  a  hammer-cloth  seat  and  standard  substituted. 
For  persons  who  wish  to  lie  at  full  length,  the  front  panel  can  be 
taken  away,  and  the  fore  end  lengthened  into  a  boot  called  a  '  dor- 
meuse.' "  ^ 

The  third  design  repre- 
sents a  composite  chariot, 
—  chariot  and  gig  in  com- 
bination,—  likewise  accom- 
modated to  travel  on  the 
Continent.  Although  an 
inelegant  and  clumsily  con- 
structed machine,  it  appears 
to  have  had  many  conven- 
iences not  found  in  the  more  simple  230st-chariot  of  former  days. 

The  next  illustration  represents  a  four-horse  post-chariot,  built  by 
Messrs.  Adams  and  Hooper,  of  London,  for  H.  B.  Hoghton,  Esq.,  in 
1829,  and  is  about  the  last  constructed  for  traveling  in  Europe,  a  gen- 
eral introduction  of 
railway    locomotives 
■^  having    entirely    su- 

perseded the  slower 
mode  of  journeying 
by  horse  power.  The 
body  of  this  chariot 
being  hung  oif  upon 
elliptical  and  C- 
springs  in  combina- 
^^^*  tion,  renders  it  easy 

imperial,"  and  between  the  front-pillar 
Beneath  the  driver's  seat  is  found  a 


Composite   CnARiOT. 


P  O  S  T  -  C  II  A 


riding.     On  the  roof  is 


and  dash-board 


m 
cap-case. 


English  Pleasure-carriages,  p. 


368  ENGLISH   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

leather  trunk,  and  beneath  the  servant's  seat  at  the  rear  is  another,  to 
the  sides  of  which  are  hung  a  small  valise  and  hat-case,  sufficient,  one 
would  think,  for  the  storage  of  all  the  luggage  a  lord  would  deem  it 
prudent  to  carry  behind  six  horses. 

The  reader  must  have  noticed  that  these  traveling  machines  were 
uncouth,  constructed  with  very  slight  regard  to  the  laws  of  taste,  com- 
fort rather  than  elegance  in  form  being  the  first  consideration  with 
travelers.  It  required  at  least  six  horses  to  move  these  unwieldy 
machines  over  the  mountainous  regions,  which  if  left  with  the  traveler 
would  saddle  him  with  heavy  charges  for  horse-feed,  etc.  Foreseeing 
this,  in  many  countries  the  government  used  to  provide  extra  horses 
at  fixed  rates,  which  being  hitched  in  front,  assisted  in  drawing  a 
vehicle  to  the  summit  of  a  hill,  where  the  animals  were  dismissed  and 
led  back  to  the  starting-place  for  a  new-comer,  this  process  being 
repeated  whenever  necessity  or  the  laws  required.  Sometimes  oxen 
were  substituted  for  horses,  and  in  some  cases,  under  the  impression 
that  bovines  would  draw  a  load  the  more  easily,  a  man  sat  on  the  end 
of  the  pole  between  the  ajiimals,  or  else  an  extra  weight  was  attached 
underneath  —  sometimes  stone  in  a  basket  —  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
ducing like  results. 

Many  amusing  specimens  of  literary  composition  have  already  been 
given  in  this  volume,  but  nowhere  have  we  found  a  more  curious  exam- 
ple of  the  alliterative  than  what  follows.  It  originated  between  two 
rival  coach  proprietors,  who  were  each  about  to  start  separate  lines 
from  Paddington,  London,  in  1829.  It  reaching  the  ears  of  one  that 
his  opponent  had  given  directions  to  have  emblazoned  on  his  vehicle, 
"The  Agreeable  Alliance,  An  Actual  Accommodation,  Affording  an 
Assylum  against  Abuse,"  the  other  immediately  ordered"  his  coach 
adorned  with  the  following  counter-efi'iision :  "  The  Competent  Com- 
petitor, a  Complete,  Comfortable,  Capital,  Conscientious  Conveyance, 
Certainly  Countenanced  by  Counts  and  Countesses,  Country-folks, 
Country  Cousins,  Commercial  Coves  and  Considerable  Citizens,  Com- 
bining Common  Charges  with  constant  Care  and  constant  Civility." 
riow  the  rivalry  terminated  we  are  unadvised,  but  since  knowledge  is 
said  to  be  wealth,  the  C's  must  have  carried  the  —  passengers.  This, 
however,  is  digressive. 

Over  seventy  years  ago  —  in  1805  — Messrs.  Bradshaw  and  Rotch, 
the  latter  a  member  of  Parliament,  a  barrister,  and  likewise  a  chairman 


CABBIOLETS  FOB   CITY  TBANSIT.  369 

of  the  Quarter  Sessions,  obtained  a  license  for  eight  cabriolets,  which 
were  started  in  London  at  fares  one  third  lower  than  was  charged  for 
the  old  hackney-coaches.  In  1832  these  numbered  sixty-five,  when 
all  restrictions  as  to  the  number  were  removed.  Of  Continental  ori- 
gin, under  different  forms,  one  of  which  is  given  below,  and  with  many 
improvements  which  will  be  noticed  as  we  proceed,  it  has  for  many 
years,  as  a  cheap  mode  of  conveyance,  been  popular  in  the  larger 
cities.  All  these  two-wheeled  vehicles  are  intended  for  two  passengers 
only,  some  with  stationary,  others 
with  falling  heads,  that  can  be  either 
opened  or  closed  according  to  the 
will  of  the  occupant  or  the  state  of 
the  weather.  With  an  apron  drawn 
in  front,  the  riders  are  almost  en- 
tirely sheltered  from  the  storm. 
When  used  as  a  private  carriage,  as  pkivate  cabriolet. 

in  our  illustration,  a  boy  is  mounted  behind,  whose  office  is  to  dis- 
mount when  the  owner  alights,  and  take  charge  of  the  vehicle  in  his 
absence.  An  English  author  saj^s,  "It  is  a  very  convenient  vehicle 
for  unmarried  men  to  go  out  in  at  night  and  return  either  from  a  din- 
ner or  from  the  theater  or  opera  or  houses  of  Parliament :  it  saves  the 
inconvenience  of  a  close  carriage,  two  horses,  a  coachman  and  a  foot- 
man, which  when  out  late  at  night  involve  a  large  amount  of  trouble 
and  expense."  ^ 

Of  this  class  of  vehicles  are  the  hackney-cab  and  hansom,  both 
requiring  large  and  powerful  horses  to  move  them.  When  first  intro- 
duced, the  driver  sat  on  the  same  seat  with  his  fare ;  afterwards  a  little 
dickey-seat  was  arranged  on  the  left  side  for  his  accommodation.  This 
proving  unsafe,  other  contrivances  were  resorted  to :  one  placed  the 
driver  immediately  over  the  fare,  in  another  case  behind.  Then  came 
the  plan  of  making  them  close  vehicles,  some  with  two  wheels,  others 
with  four. 

Many  l)itter  things  were  uttered  against  stage-coaches  on  their  first 
mtroduction,  as  has  already  been  recorded  in  these  pages ;  but  an 
interested  advocate  for  steamboats  in  1827  goes  ahead  of  them  all  in 
the  condemnation  of  stage  travel.     He  says,  "If  the  number  of  per- 

'  English  Pleasure-carriages,  p.  240. 
24 


370 


ENGLISH    WORLD    ON   WHEELS. 


sons  who  have  been  killed,  maimed,  and  disfigured  for  life  in  conse- 
quence of  stage-coach  mishaps  could  be  ascertained  since  the  establish- 
ment of  steam-packets  in  this  country,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
number  who  have  been  similarly  unfortunate  by  steam-boilers  bursting, 
we  should  find  that  the  stage-coach  proportion  would  be  in  the  ratio 
of  ten  to  one."  ^ 

But  a  revolution  in  city  travel  is  now  about  commencing,  for  "  in 
July,  1829,  amid  the  jeers  and  howls  of  the  London  hachney-coach- 
men,"  the  first  omnibus  —  afterwards  increased  to  twelve  —  was  started 
by  one  Shillibeer,  who  had  lived  some  time  in  Paris  as  a  coach-builder, 


First  English   Omnibu  s,  1829. 

and  had  noticed  the  success  of  this  system  of  conveyance,  inaugurated 
by  M.  Lafitte  ten  years  before.  An  illustration  of  Shillibeer's  omni- 
bus is  given  above.  It  was  drawn  by  three  horses  abreast,  and  must 
have  been  a  very  clumsily  made  vehicle.  The  route  taken  was  "from 
the  Yorkshire  Stingo  to  the  bank,  the  charge  being  one  shilling  the 
whole  way,  with  a  half-fare  from  or  to  King's  Cross."  2 

The  success  of  this  enterprise  was  at  once  apparent,  the  profits  being 
£100  a  week  at  first.  The  stage-coachmen  strenuously  opposed  their 
running  under  terms  of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  and  the  hackney-coach- 
men, feeling  a  reforming  wind  beginning  to  blow  agamst  them,  threw 

'  See  Hone's  Table  Book,  London,  1827. 

^  Once  a  Week,  1864.  The  article  complete  was  reprinted  in  the  New  York  Coach- 
maker's  Magazine,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  20-35. 


ENGLISH  GIG  AND   CAB  DENNET. 


371 


was  the  lightest 


every  difficulty  possible  in  their  way.  The  cheapness  and  convenience 
of  this  mode  of  transportation  found  favor  with  the  public  from  the 
first,  and  consequently  the  selfish  enmity  from  interested  liverymen 
was  of  no  avail.  Individual  enterprise  kept  omnibuses  running  in 
London  down  to  1857,  when  they  principally  were  bought  up  and  run 
by  the  London  General  Omnibus  Company,  a  joint-stock  concern,  at  a 
cost  of  £2,000,000. 

The  next  engraving  represents  an  English  gig,  fashionable  in  1830. 
A"dams  tells  us,  "  The  vehicle  formerly  known  as  a  gi 
one-horse  vehicle  used  in  England. 
It  is  simply  an  open-railed  chair 
fixed  on  the  shafts  and  supported 
on  two  side-springs,  the  hinder  ends 
of  which  were  connected  to  loop- 
irons  by  leathern  braces  to  give 
greater  freedom  of  motion.  The 
wheel  was  larger  and  the  body  kept 
higher  than  the  Stanhope,  for  which 
reason  the  shaft  required  less  curva-  English  gig,  isso. 

ture.  This  vehicle  ran  exceedingly  light  after  the  horse,  and  the 
shafts  were  usually  of  lancewood,  to  give  sufficient  play.  The  side- 
springs  were  long  and  easy,  and  the  whole  vehicle  was  well  adapted 
for  traveling  purposes.  .  .  .  Occasionally  they  were  used  for 
sporting,  Avhen  the  locker  was  made  with  Venetian  blinds  to  carry  the 
dogs,  and  then  it  became  a  dog-cart."  ^ 

An  English  coach-builder  who  furnishes  the  next  design  calls  it  a  cab 
dennet,  after  a  builder  of  that  name,  the  body  of  which  is  an  improve- 
ment upon  the  pony-phaeton  pre- 
viously given.  Adams,  in  "Eng- 
lish Pleasure-carriages,"  after  men- 
tioning that  the  dennet  has  three 
springs,  tells  us  that  he  has  heard 
that  it  "  was  named  after  the 
three  Miss  Dennets,  whose  elegant 


Cab  Dennet. 


stao-e-dancing  was  so  much  in  voo-ue 


about  the  time  the  vehicle  was  first  used. 


English  Pleasure-carriages,  p.  245. 


372 


ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


Cabriolet. 


We  have  previously  shown  a  cabriolet,  copied  from  the  "  Saturday- 
Magazine."  We  now  give  an  illustration  furnished  us  by  a  London 
coach-maker,  which  gives  the  reader  a  much  better  design  than  the 
former,  this  being  drawn  from  a  vehicle  built  by  Messrs.  Adams  & 
Hooper,  of  the  city  before  mentioned.     One  peculiar  feature  in  the 

design  is  the  graceful  sweep 
of  the  outlines  to  the  body. 
The  shaded  portion  in  front 
is  called  the  knee-flap,  serv- 
ing as  an  eifectual  protec- 
tion to  the  lower  limbs  of 

the    passenger    in    stormy 

weather,  and  is  quite  an 
improvement  upon  the  chaise,  of  which  it  is  a  modification.  We  have 
said  that  the  cabriolet  has  for  a  long  time  been  popular  in  England. 
An  English  author  says,  "  The  principal  reason  w^hy  this  carriage  is  so 
much  liked,  is  its  great  convenience.  It  carries  two  persons,  comfort- 
ably seated,  sheltered  from  the  sun  and  rain,  yet  with  abundant  fresh 
air,  and  with  nearly  as  much  privacy  as  a  close  carriage,  if  the  curtains 
be  drawn  in  front.  It  can  go  in  and  out  of  places  where  a  two-horse 
carriage  with  four  wheels  cannot  turn."  i 

The  next  engraving  represents  an  English  mail-phaeton  of  the  year 
1830,  with  the  seats  contrived  to  shift,  the  front  one  back,  or  the  back 
one  in  front,  as  occasion  requires.  After  much  research,  we  have  not 
been  able  to  learn  why  this  is  called  a 
"  mail-phaeton,"  although  probably 
because  at  some  period  a  similar 
one  has  been  employed  in  carrying 
"the  royal  mail."  It  is  evidently 
a  great  favorite  with  the  English, 
being  convenient  for  either  town 
or  country,  and  considered  by  them 
a  very  light  four-wheeled  carriage. 
These  phaetons  in  town  are  gener- 
ally driven  by  the  owner,  for  which  purpose,  as  in  our  design,  the 
best  seat  is  placed  in  front.     In  wet-weather  traveling,  the  servant 


Mail-phaeton 


English  Pleasure-carriages,  p.  240. 


JOSEPH  HANSOM'S  PATENT  CAB. 


373 


drives,    when   the    seats   are    made,    with   the  occupants,  to    change 
places. 

In  England,  it  is  not  an  unusual  thing  to  see  a  liveried  attendant  sit- 
ting bolt  upright  in  the  hind  seat,  with  arms  folded,  bearing  in  his 
countenance  a  serious  look,  that  would  more  befittingly  become  a  funeral 
than  the  character  he  is  supposed  to  act  while  occupying  the  best  seat 
in  the  phaeton.  While  the  "servant"  is  thus  enjoying  himself,  the 
"master"  handles  the  ribbons,  in  conformity  with  the  strict  rules  of 
fashion  and  lordly  taste.  Occasionally  "  a  stranger  "  is  seen  in  America 
indulging  in  his  old-country  fancies,  at  which  time  he  is  "  the  observed 
of  all  observers,"  and  the  laughing-stock  of  republican  plebeians.  Such 
is  taste  ! 

Some  time  in  1834,  Joseph  Hansom,  of  Hinckley,  in  the  town  of 
Leicester,  architect,  applied  for  a  patent,  the  nature  of  Avhich  consists 
in  the  construction  of  vehicles  or  carriages  for  passengers,  goods,  etc., 
which  has  since,  un- 
der modified  forms, 
become  very  popular 
in  England  as  a  street 
cabriolet.  In  the 
claim  dated  June  23, 
1835,  the  inventor 
gives  us  several  points 
explanatory  of  his 
patent :  ^"^ Firstly^  the 
centers  of  the  wheels, 
or  other  equivalent 
rotating  agent,  may 
correspond  to  any 
degree  that  may 
be  fitting  or  expe- 
dient with  the  line  of  traction  or  i3ropulsion,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
wheels  be  of  much  larger  dimensions,  and  the  body  part  of  the  car- 
riage, which  reaches  much  nearer  the  ground  than  has  been  hitherto 
conveniently  practicable :    secondly^  that  the  wheels  and  shafts  may 


Hansom's   Cab.i 


*  This  drawing  is  a  reduced  copy  of  the  original  in  the  British  Patent  Reports  of 
1835.  Although  the  principle  is  still  maiutaiued,  it  bears  but  faint  resemblance  to 
Hansom's  design  in  our  time. 


374  ENGLISH  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

in  all  cases  be  of  the  dimensions  best  adapted  to  fiicility  of  draft,  and 
in  certain  cases  the  wheels  to  be  dispensed  with  altogether  (that  is  to 
say,  understanding  by  the  term 'wheels '  what  are  usually  so  called, 
being  felloes,  naves,  and  spokes)  ;  and  thirdly ^  that  the  part  appro- 
priated to  the  load  or  body  part  shall  in  the  case  of  passenger  carriages 
be  more  easy  of  entrance  and  exit  than  the  body  parts  of  such  carriages 
now  usually  are,  and  in  the  case  of  carriages  for  the  conveyance  of 
goods  and  other  articles  of  dead  weight,  that  the  said  body  part  may 
be  conveniently  detached  or  reattached  upon  loading  or  unloading." 
The  inventor  still  further  says,  the  "traction  and  propulsion,  the  wear  and 
tear^  and  the  risks  of  accidents,  will  each  and  all  be  greatly  lessened." 

This  vehicle,  so  very  popular  in  England  as  a  hackney-cab,  has  since 
on  two  occasions  been  placed  in  the  streets  of  New  York  for  public 
conveyance,  but  in  every  instance  only  to  be  treated  with  neglect. 
American  taste  appears  to  run  in  another  channel.  Although  not  a 
very  easy  running  carriage  on  paved  streets,  —  what  two-wheeled 
vehicle  is  ?  —  still  something  of  the  kind  is  needed  to  cheapen  the  fares 
which  at  present  prevail  among  us. 

According  to  the  "Penny  Magazine,"  in  1834  there  were,  in  London 
alone,  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  coach-makers,  and  one  hundred  and 
eight  manufacturers  of  parts  of  coaches,  the  same  authority  assuring 
us  that  "England  was  then  better  provided  with  carriages  than  any 
other  country."  But  soon  after  this  there  arose  a  would-be  reformer,  in 
the  person  of  William  B.  Adams,  who,  after  admitting  that  "English 
pleasure  carriages,  take  them  altogether,  are  the  most  perfect  carriages 
constructed  in  any  part  of  the  world,"  tells  us  that  "the  mistake  has 
been  in  confounding  high  superiority  in  existing  art  with  absolute  per- 
fection." To  show  that  English  carriages  are  still  far  short  of  perfection 
will  be  no  very  difficult  task.  "  A  large  wheel  following  a  smaller  one, 
without  being  able  to  overtake  it,  is  the  description  applied  by  some 
quaint  author  to  a  carriage.  Herein  consists  the  source  of  the  princi- 
pal part  of  the  defects  of  carriages."  ^  This  defect,  originally  devised 
to  allow  of  short  turning  in  four-wheeled  carriages,  Mr.  Adams  pro- 
poses to  remedy  with  equirotal  (equal-sized)  wheels,  a  pivot  in  the 
center  of  the  body  —  which  is  constructed  in  halves  —  affording  facili- 
ties for  "  cramping." 

•  English  Pleasure-carriages,  London,  1837,  p.  256. 


ADAMS'S  EQUIEOTAL    CAUBIAOES. 


375 


The  first  equirotal  carriage  thus  made  was  a  phaeton,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Adams's  account,  was  drawn  with  mucli  greater  ease  to  tlie 
horse  than  an  ordinary  phaeton  of  similar  form  and  weight,  and  pro- 
duced none  of  the  unpleasant  rum- 
bling noise  common  to  ordinary 
carriages.     Other  advantao^es  be- 
sides  those  mentioned  are  claimed 
for  this  invention,  such  as  allow- 
ing the  driver  to  sit  square  behind 
the  horse  in  locking,  the  springs 
being  all  on  one  horizontal  level, 
all  play  alike,  and  in  turning,  the 
vehicle  is  free  from  the  tremulous        adams's  equirotal  phaeton. 
motion  experienced  in  other  carriages. 

This  mode  of  construction  was  likewise  applied  to  cab-phaetons, 
droitzschkas,  chariots,  mail-coaches,  and  omnibuses,  of  which  two  last 
we  give  illustrations,  and,  as  the  whole  vehicle  is  closed  in,  the  sepa- 
ration into  two  parts,  one  connected  with  each  jjair  of  wheels,  would 
not  be  advantageous.  The  inventor  therefore  proposed  that  his  omni- 
buses should  be  jointed  in  the  middle,  the  opening  being  supplied  with 

flexible  sides  of  leather.  Mr. 
Adams  claims  for  his  "  bant- 
ling" the  following  advanta- 
ges :  "  It  will  turn  with  facil- 
ity in  the  narrowest  streets 
without  impeding  the  passage- 
way along  the  interior,  as  the 
flexible  sides  move  in  a  circle. 
With  this  omnibus  two  horses 
would  do  the  work  of  three  ; 
there  would  be  great  facility  of  access  and  egress  ;  perfect  command  over 
the  horses ;  increased  ease  to  the  passengers  ;  greater  head-room  and 
more  perfect  ventilation  ;  greater  general  durability,  and  absence  of  the 
usual  rattling  noise,  accompanied  by  entire  safety  against  overturning." 
Although,  at  the  time,  Mr.  Adams's  novelties  attracted  much  atten- 
tion, yet  we  are  not  aware  that  his  dreams  have  been  realized  by  the 
general  adoption  of  his  invention  in  England  ;  and  we  suspect  that  it 
will  be  a  long  while  before  the  public  is  brought  to  coincide  with  his 


Adams's   Equikotal   Omnibus. 


376 


ENGLISH  WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


opinion,  or  favor  his  scheme.  One  objection  to  his  novelties  is  that 
they  make  a  chimsy-looking  carriage ;  anotlier,  a  new  kind  of  spring 
had  to  be  applied  in  some  vehicles,  and  these,  although  introduced  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  speculator,  have  not  answered  their  purpose  as 
well  as  the  older  inventions.  On  introducing  his  "  regulating  bow- 
spring,"  Mr.  Adams  singularly  says,  "If  it  be  desirable  to  convert 
swords  into  ploughshares  and  pruning-hooks,  it  must  be  equally  desir- 
able to  convert  our  bows  into  carriage-springs,"  —  an  argument  in  this 
instance  of  not  much  force. 

The  improvements  of  Mr.  Adams  did  not  stop  the  progress  of  art 
nor  prevent  the  construction  of  carriages  with  "  large  wheels  following 


English  Brougham. 

a  smaller  one,"  for  in  a  fcAV  years  (1839)  the  celebrated  Lord 
Brougham  ordered  a  carriage  built  by  Mr.  Robinson,  a  London  coach- 
maker,  after  a  design  of  his  own  invention,  that  has  since  borne  his 
name,  and  become  very  popular  with  the  aristocracy  of  England.  This 
carriage,  the  combination  of  the  coach  and  coupe,  will  seat  two  passen- 
gers comfortably  on  the  back  seat,  and  carry  two  children  on  a  turn- 
down scat  in  front,  under  the  circu- 
lar glass  inside. 

The  following  year  (1840)  ap- 
peared a  modified  pattern  of  tlie 
coupe,  with  the  ducal  title  of  the 
Clarence,  so  called  in  honor  of  the 
duke  of  that  name.  These  Clar- 
Clarence  Coach.  c'lces  are  widely  different  from  an 


SOVEBEIGN  AND  BASTERNA. 


377 


ordinary  coach,  as  will  be  seen  by  comparison,  but  are  now  nearly 
banished  from  the  English  catalogue.  A  late  writer,  in  noticino-  this 
vehicle,  captiously  observes,  that  "whatever  interest  this  souvenir  of 
the  past  might  have  for  antiquarians,  it  has  none  for  us,"  Occasion- 
ally one  may  yet  be  seen  in  Hyde  Park,  but  its  place  having  long  since 
been  filled  by  improved  and  better  designs,  it  is  not  likely  again  very 
soon  to  become  popular  in  England. 

The  next  carriage  is  called  in  England  the  sovereign.  It  came  into 
use  about  the  same  time  as  the 
brougham.  The  lines  in  the  body, 
although  peculiar,  are  very  far 
from  being  graceful.  The  designer 
evidently  labored  to  produce  some- 
thing novel,  in  which  he  was  suc- 
cessful, but  in  so  doing  seriously 
transgressed  the  laws  of  good 
taste. 

We  now  come  to  the  hasterna  coach,  after  Mr.  David  Davies's  pat- 
tern.    This  was  invented  in  the  year  1842.     It  differs  but  very  little 

from  the  clarence,  either 
in  the  construction  of  the 
body  or  arrangement  of 
the  dickey-seat.  Here  we 
discover  one  of  the  earli- 
est examples  of  the  round- 
ed front,  and  the  latest 
whereon  is  shown  the  an- 
cient sword- case  attached 
to  the  back  panel.  Al- 
though this  cannot  be  called  a  handsome  vehicle,  still  it  furnishes  a 
pleasing  variety  in  the  British  carriage  nomenclature.! 

The  following,  from  Knight's  "  London,"  may  very  appropriately  be 
introduced  here.  He  says,  "  It  is  very  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  London 
without  an  omnibus  or  a  cabriolet.  Yet  who  among  us  docs  not  remem- 
ber the  hour  when  they  first  appeared  ?     For  some  two  hundred  years 


Bastekna  Coach. 


*  Basterna  is  the  Latin  for  sedan  or  close  litter,  drawn  by  animals,   ainon^ 
ancient  Romans.     We  found  the  name  on  the  drawin<;  sent  us  from  London. 


the 


378 


EI^GLISH  WORLD    OK  WHEELS. 


those  who  rode  in  hired  carriages  had  seen  the  hackney-coach  passing 
through  all  phases  of  dirt  and  discomfort ;  the  springs  growing  Aveaker, 
and  the  iron  ladder  by  which  we  ascended  into  its  rickety  capaciousness 
more  steep  and  more  fragile,  the  straw  litter  filthier,  the  cushions  more 
redolent  of  dismal  smells,  and  the  glass  less  air-tight.  But  it  is  of  little 
consequence  ;  nobody  rides  in  them.  The  gentleman  at  the  *  office  for 
granting  licenses  for  carriages  plying  for  hire  in  the  metropolis '  tells 
us  that  licenses  are  still  granted  to  four  hundred  hackney-coaches. 
Alas,  how  are  the  horses  fed?  Are  the  drivers  living  men,  who  eat 
beef  and  drink  beer  ?  We  doubt  if  those  huge  capes  ever  descend  to 
receive  a  fare.  Are  they  not  specter-coaches,  —  coachmen  still  doomed 
to  sleep  upon  their  boxes,  as  the  wild  huntsman  was  doomed  to  a 
demon-chase ,  for  propitiation  ?  The  same  authority  tells  us  that  there 
are  fifteen  hundred  cabriolets  to  whom  licenses  are  granted.  These,  we 
know,  are  things  of  life.  They  rush  about  the  streets  as  rapid  as  fire- 
flies. They  lame  few,  they  kill  fewer.  They  sometimes  overturn,  but 
their  serious  damage  is  not  much.  We  borrowed  them  from  the  French, 
on  a  fine  May  morning  in  1820.  It  is  remarkable  how  slow  we  are  in 
the  adoption  of  a  new  thing,  and  how  we  hold  to  it  when  once  it  is 
adopted.  In  1813  there  were  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  cabriolets  upon 
the  hackney-stands  in  Paris,  —  ^cabriolets  de  place,'  —  and  we  had  not 
one.     Now  we  have  fifteen  hundred  of  them."  i 

Early  in  the  spring  of 
1844  a  new  cabriolet,  un- 
der the  name  of  trihus? 
to  carry  three,  was  placed 
on  the  streets  of  London, 
for  carrying  passengers, 
patented  by  Mr.  Harvey, 
of  Lambeth  House,  West- 
minster Bridge  road.  The 
entrance  to  this  vehicle  is 
in  the  rear,  as  in  the  om- 
nibus, so  as  to  facilitate 
uarvey's  cabriolet.  ingress  and  egress  much 


•  See  Kuight's  Fictorial  London,  1841,  Vol.  I,  p.  31. 

2  Two-wheeled,  to  carry  three  persons.     See  III.  London  News,  Marcli  2,  1844. 


QUEEN  VICTOBIA'S  PONY  PHAETON. 


379 


better  than  in  the  hansom.  In  case  of  accident,  an  escape  may  he 
more  effectually  accomplished  than  from  its  prototype.  Here  the 
driver  sits  at  the  rear,  by  which  the  vehicle  with  the  fare  is  more 
equally  adjusted  to  the  back  of  the  horse,  besides  giving  him  a  com- 
plete command  of  the  door,  which  he  opens  without  leaving  his  seat. 
In  front  a  red  lamp  was  placed  at  night  as  a  protection  against  collis- 
ion. There  was  also  a  very  novel  and  simple  mode  of  communicating 
with  the  driver  from  the  inside,  more  rapidly  and  conveniently  than 
ever  before  in  this  class  of  vehicles.  In 
addition,  small  wheels  were  placed  in 
front  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  occupants, 
in  case  the  shafts  should  break,  the  horse 
stumble,  or  any  other  accident  take  place 
while  the  cab  is  in  motion.  This  last 
arrangement  is  not  of  much  use.  Later 
in  the  same  year,  Mr.  Okey  invented  a 
cab,  which  he  called  the  quartobus,  in- 
tended to  carry  four  inside  passengers. 
This  hung  on  four  wheels,  the  coupling 
being  very  close  for  easy  draft. 

In  the  summer  of  1850,  a  unique  little 
•pony phaeton  was  built  by  Mr.  Andrews, 
the  Mayor  of  Southampton,  for  the  Queen 
of  England,  which  in  France  and  America 
are  now  known  as  Victorias.  The  ori- 
ginal announcement  states  that  when  the 
carriage  was  delivered  in  front  of  the 
palace  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  "  the  Queen 
and  Prince  expressed  to  the  Mayor  their 
entire  satisfaction  with  the  style,  ele- 
gance, extraordinary  lightness,  and  con- 
struction of  the  carriage,  which  scarcely 
weighed  three  hundred -weight.  The 
height  of  the  fore  wheels  is  only  eighteen 
inches,  and  of  the  hind  ones  thirty 
inches.  The  phaeton  is  cane  body,  of 
George-the-Fourth  style,  with  movable 
head ;  the  fore  part  is  iron,  but  very  light 


380  ENGLISH  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

and  elegant,  and  beautifully  painted."  i  This  carriage  has  since  been 
much  improved  in  England  and  America,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen. 
Other  phaetons  in  England  are  known  as  the  alliance,  the  Moral/,  the 
Malvern,  the  mail,  the  Stanhope  dog-cart,  the  sociable,  and  the  sport- 
ing phaeton,  each  differing  in  design  from  the  other. 

In  the  London  Exhibition  (1851)  there  were  twenty-nine  vehicles 
from  subjects  of  Great  Britain, -from  fourteen  manufactories,  but  noth- 
ing especially  new. ^  It  was  the  complaint  of  the  sub-jury  that  "the 
want  of  variety  in  the  kind,  and  the  absence  particularly  of  the  higher 
class  of  equipages,  of  traveling  carriages,  properly  so  called,  and  of 
vehicles  intended  for  the  public  service,"  the  plain  coach  and  vis-a-vis, 
and  the  landau  and  mail-coaches  not  being  represented  at  all.  This 
deficiency  they  attribute  to  the  general  introduction  of  railways  in  the 
kingdom.     In  the  report,  they  continue  :  — 

"  Comparing  the  state  of  the  art  of  carriage-building  of  former  and 
not  very  distant  times  with  that  of  the  present,  we  consider  the  princi- 
ples of  building  in  many  respects  greatly  improved,  and  particularly 
with  reference  to  '  lightness  and  a  due  regard  to  strength,'  which  is 
evident  in  carriages  of  British  make,  and  especially  displayed  in  those 
contributed  by  the  United  States,  where  there  is  commonly  employed, 
in  the  construction  of  wheels  and  other  parts  requiring  '  strength  and 
lightness '  combined,  a  native  wood  (upland  hickory)  which  is  admi- 
rably adapted  to  the  purpose.  The  carriages  from  the  Continental  states 
do  not  exhibit  this  useful  feature  in  an  equal  degree."  Under  the  head 
of  "  elegance  of  design,"  the  jury  note  a  great  deficiency  in  the  lines 
of  the  designs,  which  they  charge  to  "injudicious  innovation,"  which 
requires  the  builders  "  to  construct  vehicles  to  convey  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  persons,"  in  which  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  "  they  can  preserve 
those  outlines  which  have  hitherto  been  esteemed  elegant  and  graceful." 
They  regret  that  this  defect  appears  "  in  the  higher  class  of  carriages 
of  pleasure  and  luxury,  since  they  are  exempt  from  the  difficulty 
referred  to,"  which  they  hope  to  see  in  the  future  "  governed  by  a  nice 


'  See  III.  London  News,  Vol.  XVI,  p.  16.  Some  English  manufacturers  distinguish 
these  phaetons  as  the  "  Queen's  Park  phaeton"  or  the  "Albert  Park  phaeton,"  accord- 
ing to  the  finish  or  model  of  the  body. 

*  The  following  statistics  will  interest  the  reader.  At  this  time  there  were  16,590 
coach-makers  in  England  and  its  dependencies,  2,284  coach  and  cab  owners,  and  3,221$ 
omnibus  owners  and  conductors,  and  only  17  coach  and  carriage  dealers. 


DOG-CABT  AND  SPOUTING  PHAETON. 


381 


discrimination,  pure  taste,  and  sound  judgment."  None  of  the  carriages 
in  the  Exhibition  was  adjudged  worthy  of  the  council  medal,  and  such 
was  therefore  withheld. 

In  1859  the  English  had  in  use  the  Elcho  sociable  landau,  the  wag- 
onette, the  Norway  cart,  and  various  other  new  j^atterns  of  older  vehi- 
cles. Some  of  these  we  intend  to  describe  from  the  catalogue  of  an 
English  firm,  Messrs.  Atkinson  &  Phillipson,  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
The  first  is  called  a  sham- 
rock dog-cart,  the  seats  made 
to  slide  so  as  to  balance  for 
two  or  four  passengers,  as 
required.  These  sit  back 
to  back,  the  feet  of  the  hind 
sportsmen    resting    on  the 

end-board ,  which ,  supported  Shamrock  Dog.cart. 

by  a  strap,  is  let  down,  as  in  the  engraving.  The  two-wheeled  vehi- 
cles generally  have  shafts  of  lancewood,  the  timber  of  which,  while  it 
is  elastic,  preserves  its  original  shape  better  than  most  Avoods.  The 
openings  in  the  side,  of  cane-work,  supply  air  to  the  sportsmen's 
canine  assistants,  which  are  carried  in  the  box. 

The  next  vehicle  is  likewise  called  a  dog-cart,  although  hung  upon 
four  wheels.  Why  a  four-wheeled  vehicle  should  be  called  a  cart  is 
one  of  the  most  singular  things  in  the  coach-makers'  vocabulary,  but 

such  is  the  fact,  and  Ave  as  historians 
must  abide  hj  it.  We  Avould  call  it  a 
sporting  phaeton,  for  such  it  is  in  re- 
ality. It  is  sometimes  in  England 
termed  a  Malvern  phaeton.  Like  the 
previous  vehicle,  it  is  contrived  to 
accommodate  four  passengers  and  the 

doo:s.      In    England    these    are    fre- 
es o 

quently  finished  with  valentia  cushions 
and  falls,  in  a  tasteful  and  costly  manner,  unknoAvn  among  us,  where 
they  are  held  in  less  esteem.  Although  we  might  infer  from  the  name 
that  this  vehicle  was  designed  exclusively  for  sporting  purposes,  still 
such  is  not  the  case,  it  being  frequently  used  as  a  pleasure-carriage  in 
the  public  parks  by  both  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  England. 

At  the  period  of  Avhich  we  write,  carriages  in  England  were  nunicr- 


Spokting  Phaeton. 


382  ENGLISH   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

ous.  The  city  of  London  police,  in  May,  1860,  ascertained  that  57,765 
vehicles  entered  the  metropolis  every  twenty-four  hours,  which,  if  drawn 
up  close  in  line,  would  extend  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  reach- 
ing from  London  to  York,  and  extending  more  than  fifty  miles  beyond 
the  latter  place.  The  closeness  with  which  the  vehicles  follow  each 
other  in  the  streets  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  between  ten  and 
eleven  a.  m.,  on  Wednesday,  the  19th  of  November,  1862,  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  the  total  number  passing  Bow  Church,  in  both  directions, 
was  1,255,  of  which  348  were  omnibuses,  584  cabs,  and  282  carts, 
drays,  vans,  and  wagons,  besides  41  trucks  and  barrows.  The  numbers 
and  proportions  of  vehicles  passing  the  same  point  between  four  and 
five  p.  M.,  on  the  same  day,  were  ascertained  to  be  as  nearly  as  possi- 
ble the  same. 

A  London  coach-builder,  in  a  letter  to  the  author  in  1860,  says  in 
reference  to  trade,  "Ten  years  have  completed  a  total  revolution  in 
the  carriage  trade  in  England.  Not  only  have  the  court  and  nobility 
adopted  economical  habits,  and  insist  on  cheap  carriages,  but  they  carry 
no  luggage,  as  was  formerly  the  case,  when  carriages  had  to  sustain  great 
weight,  both  of  passengers  and  luggage.  The  cumbrous  court  carriages 
of  former  times  are  being  gradually  abolished,  and  instead  of  the  rich 
linings,  laces,  fringes,  and  elaborate  heraldry  usual  to  the  carriages  of 
the  nobility,  light  vehicles,  furnished  only  with  a  crest,  take  many 
ladies  of  rank  to  the  court  of  our  gracious  sovereign.  The  changes  in 
construction,  and  consequent  depreciation  in  stock,  were  a  heavy  blow 
to  the  master  coach-builders  ;  many  of  the  large  houses  must  have  lost, 
in  this  manner,  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  pounds.  The  trade  having 
now  recovered  from  this  blow  is  in  a  more  healthy  state."  The  ftivor- 
ite  carriages  in  England  at  this  time  were  wagonettes,  sociables,  Stan- 
hope and  mail  phaetons,  basket  phaetons,  and  landaus. 

A  second  Liternational  Exhibition  was  held  in  London  in  1862.  An 
interval  of  eleven  years  occurs  since  the  first  took  place.  The  jury's 
report  tells  us  that  "  the  tastes  and  requirements  for  private  carriages 
have  evidently,  of  late  years,  taken  a  great  change.  The  English 
department  does  not  contain  a  single  carriage  fitted  with  a  hammer- 
cloth,  although  still  used  by  the  aristocracy  during  the  London  season. 
.  Nor  is  there  a  traveling  carriage,  .  .  .  nor  carriages  for 
the  streets  of  cities  and  towns,  because  the  choice  of  carriages  for  dis- 
play had  been  left  entirely  to  the  discretion  of  each  exhibitor.     The 


LANDAU  AND   WAGONETTES. 


383 


result  was  a  lack  of  variety  in  the  one  hundred  and  forty  in  the  build- 
ing. We  givQ  a  few  extracts  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  some  of 
the  novelties,  and  increasing  our  collection  of  illustrations  :  — 

"  In  consequence  of  many  improvements  effected  in  the  manufacture 
of  landaus,  the  chief  of  which  is  the  great  reduction  in  weight,  the 
demand  for  them  has  already  increased.  They  are  well  suited  to  the 
variable  climate  of  the  British  Isles,  as  they  can  be  readily  changed 
from  an  open  to  a  close  carriage,  and  vice  versa.  They  do  not,  how- 
ever, admit  of  that  beauty  of  outline  that  is  capable  of  being  given  to 
an  entirely  open  or  entirely  close  carriage  ;  but  from  the  amount  of  care 
and  contrivance  displayed,  as  evinced  in  mauy  of  those  shown,  they 
have  such  qualities  as  render  them  very  convenient  and  desirable  family 
carriages,  either  for  London  or  country  use.  There  are  shown  several 
ingenious  plans  for  enabling  the  heads  of  landaus  to  fall  flatter  than  has 
hitherto  been  considered  practicable  ;  they  have  the  advantage  of  con- 
verting the  landau  into  a  more  open  carriage  than  formerly,  besides 
preventing  an  obstruction  to  the  view.  Most  of  these  carriages  are 
hung  at  such  a  very  moderate  distance  from  the  ground,  and  with  cov- 
ered steps,  that  it  is  optional  whether  one  or  two  servants  shall  accom- 
pany them. 

"Carriages  of  the  wagonette  type,  where  the  sitters  in  the  back 
seats  are  placed  sideways  and  vis-a-vis,  are  come  much  into  use  of  late 
years.  They  possess  the  advantage  of  carry  in 
persons  in  a  ciirriage 
of  given  weight  than 
any  other  on  four 
wheels.  The  first, 
or  nearly  the  first, 
of  these  was  built  in 
the  year  1845,  under 
the  personal  direc- 
tion of  the  late  Prince 
Consort,  for  the  use 
of  her  Majesty  and 
the  r  oyal  family. 
It  had  many  ingen- 
ious contrivances  suggested  by  the  Prince,  with  whom  and  her  Majesty 
it  always  remained  a  favorite  carriage  for  country  excursions.     There 


a  greater  number  of 


GLisH   Wagonette. 


384  ENGLISH  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

are  so  many  varieties  of  carriages  of  this  type,  and  so  much  ingenuity 
has  been  bestowed  on  them,  that  it  can  hardly  excite  surprise  that  they 
are  much  appreciated  by  those  who  use  carriages,  especially  in  hilly 
parts  of  the  country,  where  a  compact,  serviceable,  and  economical 
carriage  is  in  many  cases  indispensable. 

"A  revival  of  an  almost  obsolete  carriage,  Hhe  four-in-hand  coach,' 
has  taken  place  within  a  few  years.  They  are  generally  built  on  the 
model  of  the  best  mail  and  stagec  oaches  of  former  times,  but  with  a 
much  higher  degree  of  finish.  It  may  appear  very  easy  to  the  unini- 
tiated to  build  such  a  carriage,  merely  on  the  lines  of  former  days,  but 
in  fact  they  require  such  careful  and  accurate  planning  of  the  several 
parts,  individually  and  combined,  that  only  those  who  have  given  much 
attention  to  them,  and  have,  to  a  certain  extent,  been  tutored  by  gen- 
tlemen who  drive  them,  have  been  successful  in  turning  out  carriages 
of  the  kind  that  in  most  points  meet  their  requirements.  .  .  .  The 
revival  of  such  taste  for  such  carriages  is  worthy  of  remark,  as  the 
management  of  a  'team'  not  only  requires  great  bodily  strength,  good 
nerve,  and  a  quick  eye,  but,  being  an  expensive  amusement,  is  mostly 
confined  to  the  aristocracy  and  persons  of  wealth,  with  whose  habits  it 
is  principally  associated,  and  indicates  something  of  that  vigor  of  body 
which  generally  distinguishes  the  British  gentry." 

"  The  principle  of  suspending  carriages  on  a  single  wrought-iron  perch, 
first  prominently  introduced  at  the  Exhibition  of  1851,  has  produced  a 
great  change  in  the  construction  of  nearly  all  C-spring  carriages  now 
built,  and  has  many  advantages  for  small  carriages  hung  low.  It  is, 
however,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  for  carriages  hung  high,  and  requiring 
double  folding-steps,  the  perch  of  wood  and  iron  combined  has  the 
greater  recommendation  of  increased  safety,  as  three  iron  plates  and 
the  wood  must  break  before  an  accident  can  happen ;  whereas,  the  solid 
iron  perch  depends  for  its  safety  on  the  soundness  of  a  single  weld." 

Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  trade  in  Scotland  may  be  gathered  from 
a  statement  in  the  Edinburgh  "  Daily  Eeview,"  published  in  1863,  which 
says  :  "  There  are  in  Scotland  1,549  males  and  one  female  engaged  in 
the  carriage  business,  and  1,857  males  and  seven  females  in  making 
harness."  Persons  in  Great  Britain  at  this  period,  letting  post-horses 
and  carriages,  for  a  single  horse  and  carriage  paid  an  annual  license  of 
$37.50,  with  seven  rates  to  twenty  horses  and  exceeding  fifteen  car- 
riages, when  the  license  was  |350,  with  $50  for  every  ten  horses,  or 


IMPBOVED  HANSOM  CAB. 


385 


fmction  thereof  beyond.  For  the  same  in  Ireland,  $10.50,  and  five  per 
cent  thereon.  The  license  to  run  a  stage-carriage  in  Great  Britain  was 
$16,  and  to  keep  a  hackney-carriage  in  London,  $5.  In  addition  to  the 
license  for  running  stage-coaches,  an  additional  duty  of  two  cents  per 
mile  is  levied.  During  1862,  6,215  hackney-coaches  were  licensed  in 
London,  amounting  to  $455,900.  In  Great  Britain,  3,310  stage-car- 
riages were  licensed,  amomiting  to  $632,090. 

In  London  and  a  few  other  cities  the  hansom  cab  has  proved  very 
popular,  a  large  number  being  worked  by  railway  companies  and 
others,  involving  large  investments  of  cap- 
ital to  carry  on  the  business.  These  vehi- 
cles are  regularly  numbered,  licensed,  and 
l^ut  under  the 
inspection  of 
the  police.  A 
fair  quality  of 
horses  are  re- 
quired to  run 
them,  with 
changes  of  dri- 
vers for  both  Improved  Hansom  Cab.i 
day  and  nio-ht  service.  Each  horse  and  cab  are  lent  to  a  cabman,  who 
is  expected  to  pay  to  the  proprietor,  at  the  end  of  his  day  or  night 
work,  a  sum  of  7s.  Qxl.  or  8s.,  and  this  must  be  paid  whether  the 
driver  has  earned  it  or  not,  failure  to  do  so  rendering  him  liable  to 
imprisonment.  Most  of  the  men  who  submit  to  this  hard  lot  are  such 
as  have  been  unsuccessful  in  other  pursuits  of  life,  and  adopt  this  as  a 
last  resource.  For  the  most  part,  night  cabs  are  inferior  to  those 
driven  in  the  daytime,  dilapidated  and  drawn  by  sorry-looking  horses, 
the  drivers  of  which  would  hardly  pass  muster  under  sunlight.  Under 
the  circumstances  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  men  of  character 
would  engage  in  the  business,  and  since  they  do  not,  the  public  has  to 
submit  to  extortion  and  abuse  of  every  kind. 2 


1  This  hansom  shows  the  improvement  of  Mr.  Evans.     Cabs  in  London  cost  from 
forty-eight  to  flfty-four  guineas. 

^  After  all  the  praise  bestowed  upon  the  hansoms  in  certain  quarters,  we  fmd,  to  our 
surprise,  in  a  London  journal  for  1875,  a  notice  that  an  influential  company  is  in  course 
of  formation,  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  London  with  good  cabs.     The  same  paper 
25 


386 


ENGLISH  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


In  consequence  of  the  crowded  condition  of  the  streets  during  busi- 
ness hours,  the  following  regulations  for  the  city  of  London  were 
adoj^ted:  Between  the  hours  of  nine  a.  m.  and  six  r.  m.,  no  vehicle 
with  more  than  four  horses  was  allowed.  Coals,  beer,  wine,  or  other 
liquids  could  not  be  delivered  in  twenty-four  of  the  principal  streets, 
except  very  early  in  the  morning  or  after  five  in  the  evening.  The 
sale  of  vegetables,  fish,  fruit,  and  other  articles  carried  in  any  vehicle 
was  likewise  interdicted  during  the  nine  hours  above  alluded  to.  "Wag- 
ons, too,  were  ordered  to  stand  parallel  with  the  curbstone  while  load- 
ing, with  other  regulations  having  the  sole  object  in  view  of  relieving 
overcrowded  thoroughfares. 

The  next  figure  represents  a  gentlemavUs  family  omnibus^  a  thing 
unknown  in  America,  or  probably  anywhere  else  except  it  be  in  Eng- 
land and  France .  The  body 
beinof  hunor  low  in  a  novel 
manner  makes  it  easy  of 
ascent.  The  body  in  some 
cases  works  in  two  recesses 
in  the  sides,  when  the  slid- 
ing up  and  down  of  the 
axles  must  prove  rather  in- 
convenient to  the  passen- 
gers. The  middle  glass 
frames  require  to  be  fixed,  and  the  glass  opaque,  to  hide  the  opera- 
tions of  the  wheels  from  the  occupants  when  in  motion,  otherwise  the 
sight  might  prove  disagreeable  and  annoying. 

complains  of  the  treatment  cabmen  give  tlieir  fares,  and  mentions  that  now  and  tlien 
cabmen  may  be  met  witli  who  are  lioncst,  and  adds,  "  But  tlie  only  one  we  have  encoun- 
tered lately  asked  for  a  subscription  to  a  Methodist  chapel,  as  he  amiably  pocketed  his 
exact  ftxre.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Methodists  will  make  more  converts  among  the 
cabmen." 

The  most  troublesome  customer  these  "  cabbies  "  have  encountered  lately  is  one  Mrs. 
Giacometti  Prodgers.  Being  well  informed  inlaw,  she  takes  a  seat  in  a  cab,  and  should 
John  charge  a  penny  too  much,  she  summons  him  before  a  magistrate.  If  there  arises 
any  doubt  as  to  the  distance  traveled,  she  has  it  measured  by  government  officials  at 
her  expense,  and  where  she  gains  the  suit  the  cabby  is  obliged  to  refund  it,  and  pay  a 
fine  besides.  The  result  of  this  "  Prodgers  "  mission  is  that  when  a  cabman  sees  that 
lady  approaching  his  stand,  he  beats  an  ignominious  retreat,  and  hides  in  one  of  the 
"shelters."  But  even  there  he  is  not  certain  of  safety.  On  one  occasion,  it  is  said, 
she  stormed  a  sanctum,  when  the  affrighted  Jehus  fled  in  all  directions,  leaving  her  in 
undisputed  possession  of  sundry  uncooked  chops,  steaks,  and  half-emptied  beer-pots. 


Gentleman's  Family  Omnibus. 


COUP£  AND   OPEN  TOWN  BABOUCIIE. 


J87 


The  coupe  we  have  shown  to  have  originated  in  France.  The  fol- 
lowing design  cxhil)its  an  English  type  of  the  vehicle,  after  a  design 
by  J.  Cooper,  of  London.  This  is  himg  np  with  elliptic  springs  in 
front,  and  half-elliptic  and 
cross-springs  behind.  A 
peculiar  feature  in  this 
carriage  is,  the  lines  of 
the  body  are  mostly 
straight,  the  frieze  or 
quarter  rail  being  painted 
in  imitation  of  wicker- 
work,  formerly  much  in 
vogue  among  both  Conti- 
nental  and  English 
progress  of  this  history 


carriage  manufacturer 


English   Coupfi. 

as  we  have  shown 


in  the 
A  comparison  of  this  with  the  French  (page 
242)  will  furnish  the  reader  with  a  very  correct  idea  of  the  difference 
in  taste  applicable  to  similar  vehicles  constructed  in  the  different 
countries. 

We  have  previously  shown  a  design  (page  329)  representing  a 
barouche  of  the  year  1767.  The  improvements  of  a  century  may  be 
seen  by  comparing  the  open  town  barouche  with  the  former.  Adams 
describes  the  barouche  as  "the  principal  of  all  open  carriages."     As  a 

carriage  for  park 
airings  in  summer 
weather  it  is  unsur- 
passed, but  for  win- 
ter service  the  lan- 
dau is  preferable. 
The  writer  before 
mentioned  says,  "It 

Open   Town   Barouche.  is,    properly    Speak- 

ing, only  a  town  carriage,  being  unprovided  with  traveling  furniture. 
The  driving  seat  is  similar  to  that  of  a  landau."  The  rumble  behind 
is  designed  for  carrying  a  footman,  the  body  and  rum])le  both  being 
suspended  on  C  and  under  springs,  rendering  it  extremely  easy  riding. 
The  largest  export  trade  of  England  is  with  Australia,  the  Mauri- 
tius, India,  British  West  Indies,  Russia,  South  Africa,  Brazil,  Java, 
and  Egypt,  each  country  being  mentioned  according  to  its  importance 


388  ENGLISH  WOULD  ON  WHEELS. 

from  a  commercial  standpoint.  In  1857  the  pleasure  and  other  car- 
riages exported  to  foreign  comitries  amounted  to  1,564,  the  total 
value  of  which  was  £110,566;  in  1858,  1,199,  value  £95,519;  and 
in  1859,  1,195,  value  £95,744,  — showing  a  decrease  each  successive 
year. 

A  writer  in  the  "Carriage-Builders'  Art  Journal "  gets  off  the  follow- 
ing, which,  after  making  the  proper  allowance  for  its  extravagance, 
may  be  received  as  a  picture  of  the  times  of  which  we  write :  "  The 
occupants  of  'London  carriages'  are  not  generally  by  any  means  devoid 
of  their  own  attractiveness  for  beholders,  nor  are  the  horses  unworthy 
their  becoming  share  of  attention  ;  and  the  whole  scene  is  so  animated 
and  so  inspiriting,  and  every  actor  appears  so  completely  absorbed  in 
doing  either  as  much  as  possible  or  as  little  as  possible  within  a  given 
time  and  space,"  that  "  in  no  other  city  are  such  throngs  on  foot,  or  such 
crowds  of  carriages  in  motion.  There  may  be  greater  gayety  and  more 
variety  of  costume  in  the  streets  of  other  cities,  and  the  carriages  may 
be  more  quaint  and  more  remarkable ;  but  there  exists  not  elsewhere 
in  the  world  what  can  for  a  moment  be  compared  with  the  multitudi- 
nous array  of  London,  with  its  surging  yet  quiet  hosts  of  people,  and 
with  the  quiet  and  unpretending  costliness  of  its  equipages.  There  is 
something  thoroughly  English  and  thoroughly  London,  also,  as  well  in 
the  heavily  laden  drays  and  good  vans  of  the  city,  as  in  the  best 
appointed  sociable  landau  that  dashes  into  the  Park  between  other  car- 
riages that  have  their  panels  coroneted  like  its  own.  And  all  this  may 
be  made  to  feel  eftectively  upon  our  particular  object,  upon  the  car- 
riage-building of  England  at  the  present.  It  is  this  carriage-building 
which  produces  these  carriages  ;  let  the  carriages  collectively  react  for 
good  upon  the  manufacture  which  brings  them  into  effective  and  charac- 
teristic existence.  And  more  than  this,  the  carriages  of  London  may 
be  made  powerfully  instrumental  in  exercising  practical  influence  upon 
the  provincial  trade  and  upon  carriage-building  throughout  our  colo- 
nial empire.  London  is  and  London  must  be  the  model  workshop  of 
the  British  Empire  ;  and  the  streets  of  London  constitute  the  London 
carriage-builders'  museum  of  productions.  From  this  museum  provin- 
cial and  colonial  purchasers  and  users  of  carriages  alike  derive  their 
prevalent  ideas  of  what  they  like  and  what  they  will  pay  for." 

With  the  Elcho  sociable  landau y  introduced  by  Rigby  and  Robinson, 
of  Park  Lane,  London,  we  close  the  illustrations  of  this  chapter.     An 


ENGLISH   LOVE    OF  DISPLAY 


389 


Its  graceful  outline  and  roominess  make 


It  lias  become  what  th 


English  authority  say 

the  very  beau-ideal  of  vehicular  luxury 

chariot   was    some 

years    ago,    the 

handsomest    C- 

s  J)  ring      carriage 

out." 

There  is  no  jseople 
in  the  world  who 
use    carriages    for 

display  as  well  as  Elcho  sociable  landau. 

pleasure,  that  can  compete  with  the  English.  The  thirty  millions 
of  hmiian  Ijeings  which  crowd  the  little  island  have,  either  by  force  or 
skill,  laid  nearly  every  country  on  the  globe  under  contribution.  Her 
aristocracy  possess  the  most  superb  horses  and  the  most  beautiful  equi- 
pages, attended  by  servants  dressed  in  showy  liveries,  such  as  are  seen 
nowhere  else.  On  almost  any  afternoon  during  "the  London  season," 
files  of  carriages,  often  four  al:)reast,  each  a  mile  or  more  in  length,  may 
be  seen  in  Hyde  Park,  moving  in  a  certain  direction  Avith  the  greatest 
regularity,  all  under  police  control.  As  evidence  of  this  we  will  state 
that  on  one  fine  afternoon  in  June,  1873,  when  the  Shah  of  Persia  was 
expected  to  enter  it,  on  his  way  to  Windsor,  the  Avriter,  with  a  miscel- 
laneous crowd  of  other  plebeians,  took  his  station  on  the  foot-curb  next 
the  street,  inside.  Soon  after  the  carriages  stopped  in  front,  obscuring 
the  view,  much  to  our  annoyance.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  a 
squad  of  mounted  police  made  its  appearance,  forcing  the  entire  line 
across  the  roadway,  leaving  the  standing  visitors  an  unobscured  view 
of  the  procession,  which  included  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales, 
the  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  and  other  dignitaries.  It  certainly  gave 
us  much  pleasure  to  find  that,  with  all  her  pride  and  aristocratic  feel- 
ing, there  still  remained  some  sense  of  right  for  the  common  people, 
which  the  rich  were  forced  to  respect. 


390 


NORTHEBN   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


NORTHERN  EUROPEAN  CARRIAGES^^rr^  RUSSIA ,  NORWAY,  DENMARK, 
SWEDEN,  AND  GERMANY. 


In  northern  climes,  where  frost  and  snow  abound, 
And  half  the  year  seal  up  the  fertile  ground. 
Then  wheeled  vehicles  are  laid  aside, 
And  only  sledges  capture  those  who  ride 


^- 


AUTHOU. 


OUNTEIES  men- 
tioned at  the  head 
of  this  chapter  have 
all,  more  or  less,  in 
modern      times, 
copied  the  mod- 
els of  France  and 
England      in 
building     their 
These 


carriao-es. 


we  need  not  notice  here.  There  are,  however,  some  vehicles  pecul- 
iarly national,  deserving  of  special  notice,  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
Eussian  choschJce  and  the  Norwegian  cariole,  etc.  The  Russian  car- 
riages, in  addition  to  the  one  named,  are  the  kibiika,  the  taranta,  the 
telega y  and  the  telashka,  with  a  few  others. 

The  droschke,  engraved  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  is  much 
used,  both  for  public  and  private  purposes,  during  the  summer  months, 
particularly  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  As  soon  as  winter  sets  in 
and  snow  falls,  both  droschkes  and  sledges  may  be  seen  clustered 
together  along  the  footways  for  hire ;  but  as  winter  advances,  the 
wheel  cari'iages  disappear  until  spring  opens.  Before  the  invention  of 
springs,  the  droschke  was  an  uncomfortable  machine,  one  writer 
describing  it  "  altogether  as  ingenious  an  instrument  of  torture  as  any 
exhibited  in  the  Tower  of  London,  or  elsewhere."     The  ^passengers' 


EUSSIAN  DROSCHKE  DESCItlBED.  391 

seat  has  been  described  as  an  oval-cushioned  affiiir,  extending  along  the 
center  of  the  body,  from  the  driver's  seat  to  the  back  end,  without  a 
rest-board,  on  which  single  travelers  sit  astride  in  the  most  inelegant 
manner,  the  only  prospect  ahead  being  a  needlessly  close  view  of  a  long 
coat  of  coarse  cloth,  with  a  brass  plate  and  number  suspended  from  the 
collar,  the  whole  surmounted  by  a  low-crowned  hat,  in  shape  resem- 
bling a  peck  measure.  When  there  are  two  passengers,  one  sits  in 
advance  of  the  other,  with  their  feet  on  opposite  sides,  resting  on  a 
step-floor,  to  which  the  fenders  are  secured,  which  extend  upwards  in 
graceful  curves  over  the  wheels,  the  driver  being  seated  in  front,  sepa- 
rated from  his  fare  by  an  iron  bar,  six  inches  high.  All  the  drivers 
have  a  common  livery,  consisting  of  a  blue  coat,  folding  over  the  breast, 
secured  at  the  waist  by  a  sash,  the  skirts  hanging  a  little  below  the 
knees.  They  have  trousers  of  large  size,  tucked  inside  the  boots, 
coming  half-way  up  the  legs.  A  long,  shaggy  beard  completes  —  the 
driver. 

Thus  situated,  the  driver  starts  his  horses,  keeping  on  at  a  good  run ; 
and  could  you  hold  on  to  the  droschke  with  your  feet  as  tightly  as  you 
hold  on  to  your  companion  with  your  arms,  you  might  feel  a  measure 
of  security.  Indeed,  we  are  told,  "  if  you  are  driving  on  the  Nievsky 
Prospect,  and  it  is  crowded  with  other  vehicles,  the  greater  number  of 
them  droschkes,  all  running  as  fast  as  your  own,  —  now  you  put  out 
your  hand  to  turn  away  a  running  horse's  head  within  a  foot  of  your 
own  face,  and  directly  your  other  shoulder  wipes  the  foam  from  another 
passing  horse,  and  this  is  done  so  often  that  your  outside  garment  soon 
looks  like  a  winter  landscape.  For  observation  you  have  no  time,  your 
whole  attention  being  occupied  in  wondering  at  the  skill  with  which 
imminent  collisions  are  dodged,  and  when  at  last  you  become  used  to 
it,  thmk  it  the  finest  driving  you  ever  enjoyed." 

The  bow-shaped  fixture  over  the  neck  of  the  horse  serves  to  keep 
the  shafts  apart,  support  the  reins,  and  elevate  the  head.  Sometimes 
this  bow  is  three  or  four  feet  hisrh.  For  dra^s  it  is  often  three  inches 
thick  and  five  wide,  painted  with  gaudy  colors,  as  a  wreath  of  red  roses 
on  a  ground  of  green  grass.  When  three  horses  are  used,  they  are  all 
harnessed  abreast.  The  horses  are  mostly  black,  and  it  is  said  they 
seldom  fall.  There  is  a  tariff  of  charges  for  the  public  droschkes,  reg- 
ulated by  law,  but  avoided  where  possible.  If  you  hire  one  and  give 
the  driver  his  orders,  he  invariably  tells  you  he  is  already  engaged,  and 


392  NOBTHEEN   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

cannot  consent  to  run  the  risk  of  being  discharged  for  a  less  consider 
ation  than  three  half-rubles,  Avhich  you  are  compelled  to  pay,  or  "  foot 
it." 

The  kibitka  is  the  common  posting- wagon,  consisting  of  a  huge  frame 
of  unhewn  sticks,  fastened  firmly  upon  two  axles,  the  fore  part  of  it 
having  underneath  a  solid  block  of  hard  wood,  on  which  it  rests,  ele- 
vating it  so  as  to  allow  the  wheels  to  play.  A  simple  mode  of  form- 
ing a  seat  is  to  take  a  long  rope,  and  cross  it  many  times  over  the  top 
of  the  frame,  securing  it  to  the  frame-work  at  the  sides,  thus  providing 
a  seat  which  is  a  little  elastic,  in  the  absence  of  springs,  in  which  they 
are  deficient.  Sometimes  this  improvised  seat  is  improved  by  adding 
a  pillow  or  a  sack  of  hay.  By  being  thus  elevated,  the  unaccustomed 
traveler  is  likely  to  be  thrown  oat ;  thus,  while  in  one  sense  he  enjoys 
a  degree  of  comfort,  he,  on  the  other  hand,  is  made  miserable  by  the 
fear  of  being  killed. 

The  tarenta  is  the  traveling-carriage  of  Kussia,  accommodated  to 
the  miserable  roads  in  many  portions  of  the  empire.  The  body  resem- 
bles a  flat-bottomed  punt,  placed  upon  a  series  of  long  poles,  connect- 
ing the  axles  of  the  front  and  hind  wheels.  A  hood  and  apron  pro- 
tects the  passenger  from  the  rain.  In  this  carriage  the  baggage  is 
securely  packed,  sitting  on  which  the  traveler  finds  some  comfort  by 
day,  reclining  on  which  he  sleeps  at  night.  Three  horses  before  the 
vehicle  constitute  it  a  troika. 

At  St.  Petersburg  there  is  an  imperial  manufactory  for  carriages, 
with  an  Englishman  as  director,  also  a  museum  of  old  vehicles,  fully 
described  in  the  ''New  York  Coach-maker's  Magazine."  Russian  car- 
riages of  every  description  are  built  in  the  most  solid  manner,  as  the 
thaw  in  the  spring,  after  the  winter  frosts,  renders  the  roads  so  bad 
that  a  light  or  weak  carriage  must  soon  give  out. 

The  most  ancient  wheeled  vehicle  in  Norway  is  the  cariole,  resem- 
bling very  much  the  Laplander's  sledge  on  wheels.  One  more  than 
two  hundred  years  old  was  shown  in  our  late  Centennial  Exhibition. 
When  formerly  it  had  no  springs,  the  shafts  were  made  very  long,  to 
give  it  a  degree  of  easy  motion.  Since  the  introduction  of  springs  this 
length  has  been  a  little  shortened,  although  still  unsightly  long  in  the 
opinion  of  many.  Usually  only  one  passenger  occupies  the  narrow 
seat  over  the  wheels,  which  are  generally  large  sized.  The  hind  por- 
tion has  a  fixture  for  carrying  baggage,  on  which  in  some   cases  a 


CAEIOLE   TRAVEL  IN  NORWAY. 


393 


second  passenger  takes  a  seat.  The  harness  is  generally  very  simple, 
very  much  resembling  a  cart  harness,  although  somewhat  lighter,  the 
reins  being  made  of  rope. 


NOUWEGIAN     CARIOLE. 

"The  carioles,"  says  Mr.  Barrow,  a  traveler  in  Norway,  "were  gen- 
erally accompanied  either  by  boys,  who  ran  alongside  with  extraordi- 
nary activity,  jumping  up  occasionally  behind  to  rest  themselves, 
whenever  the  road  was  tolerably  level ;  but  as  the  country  on  the  first 
part  of  our  journey  was  ascending,  sometimes  up  the  steep  side  of  the 
mountain,  they  often  had  to  walk  the  greater  part  of  the  stage.  .  .  . 
The  traveler  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  rocks  of  enormous  height, 
rising  almost  perpendicularly  from  their  base,  while  the  sides  of  the 
mountains  are  covered  with  forests  of  dark  green  fir-trees,  which  rear 
their  lofty  heads  above  each  other,  vying  in  height  with  the  steep  rocks 
among  which  they  are  blended.  The  precipices  both  above  and  below 
the  narrow  road  are  frightful  to  contemplate,  no  precaution  whatever 
being  taken  to  prevent  carriages  from  slipping  off  into  the  abyss  below. 
In  many  places  these  precipices  are  perpendicular,  and  sometimes  are 
inclined  inwards.  The  road,  too,  is  so  narrow  as  to  be  little  more  than 
barely  sufiicient  to  admit  the  wheels  of  carioles  between  the  edge  and 
the  sides  of  the  mountain.  Had  we  happened  to  meet  any  other  trav- 
elers here, — which,  was  fortunately  not  very  probable, — we  should 
have  been  under  the  necessity  of  taking  the  horses  out,  and  lifting  the 
carioles  over  each  other.  The  chances,  however,  were  against  such  a 
meeting,  for  not  a  single  human  being  had  hitherto  appeared  to  us  on 
this  route.  Oftentimes  the  road  before  us  seemed  to  terminate  alto- 
gether at  the  brink  of  the  precipice,  when  on  reaching  the  spot  it  was 
found  to  turn  sharply  round  ;  and  then  sharp  turns,  with  the  yawning 
gulf  beneath,  being  almost  inevitable  destruction,  should  the  animal 


394  NOBTHEBN   WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 

become  restive,  or  an  overturn  unfortunately  take  place."  Like  most 
other  northern  European  vehicles,  these  carioles  are  made  heavy  and 
strong. 

The  Danes  have  an  open  carriage  known  as  the  Holstein-vogue,  or 
traveling-wagon,  which  is  used  for  long  journeys,  more  on  account  of 
its  cheapness  than  for  any  other  reason,  as  it  has  neither  covering  nor 
springs.  Visitors  willing  to  pay  are  furnished  with  a  superior  vehicle, 
to  which  a  covering  is  added. 

At  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  only  one  coach  in 
Sweden,  and  that  was  taken  there  by  John  of  Finland,  on  his  return 
from  a  visit  to  England.^  Fifty  years  ago  there  were  no  stage-coaches 
in  the  country,  and  travelers  had  to  provide  their  own  carriages,  or 
else  employ  such  rude  machines  as  it  afforded,  of  rude  construction, 
but  answering  very  well  in  fair  weather.  The  native  horses  are  repre- 
sented as  small,  but  active  and  sure-footed.  The  harness  consisted  of 
little  else  than  common  rope,  adjusted  to  the  animal  in  a  very  primitive 
manner,  as  in  other  undeveloped  lands. 

To  notice  all  German  vehicles  would  oblige  us  to  duplicate  much  of 
the  matter  given  in  the  chapter  devoted  to  France.  Consequently  we 
limit  our  remarks  to  a  few  of  the  more  ancient  carriages,  and  begin 

with  the  German  karen, 
or  cart,  of  1508,  copied 
from  a  wood-cut  by  Hans 
Burgmayer.  Similar  pic- 
tures, drawn  by  Albert 
Durer,  the  teacher  of 
Hans  Burgmayer,  are  still 
in  existence,  the  construc- 
tion of  which  almost  ex- 
actly agrees  with  some  of  the  present  time  among  the  Germans  and 
other  neighboring  nations. 

The  next  engraving  represents  the  vehicle  used  on  the  wedding-day 
of  William,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  with  Benata,  Duchess  of  Lothringen,  in 
1568.  It  was  presented  to  the  bride  by  the  bridegroom  as  a  bridal 
and  family  carriage.  It  is  copied  from  a  volume  in  the  private  library 
of  the  head  table-master  of  a  public  institution  in  Munich.     A  pecul- 


German   Kaken. 


See  Daliu's  Geschichte  des  reidis  Schueden  ubersetz  von  Dahnert,  III,  I,  pp.  390,  402. 


GEBMAN  BBIBAL    GIFT. 


395 


iarity  of  this  Ccarriage  is  that  the  body  is  suspended  on  leather  braces 
to  standards,  as  we  find  in  the  French  department.  The  carriage 
itself  has  been  immortalized  in  verse  by  the  German  poet  Wirre,  in  a 


Duchess  of  Lothringen's   Ooach, 


volume  published  at  Augsburg,  the  year  of  the  marriage,  wherein  he 
labors  carefully  to  describe  the  skillful  manipulations  of  the  carriage- 
maker,  carver,  blacksmith,  painter,  and  goldsmith. 


396 


AMEBICAN  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 


CHAPTER    XT. 


AMERICAN    CARRIAGES,    WITH    THEIR    HISTORICAL   ASSOCIATIONS. 


■  Now  in  building  of  chaises,  I  tell  jou  what. 
There  is  always  somewhere  a  weakest  spot, 
In  hub,  tire,  felloe,  in  spring,  or  thill, 
In  panel,  or  cross-bar,  or  floor,  or  sill, 
In  screw,  bolt,  thorough-brace  —  lurking  still. 
Find  it  somewhere  you  must  and  will  — 
Above  or  below,  or  within  or  without  — 
And  that's  the  reason,  beyond  a  doubt, 
A  chaise  breaks  down,  but  doesn't  wear  out." 

O.  W.  Holmes,   One-horse  Shaij. 


HEN  our  forefathers 
came  to  this  western 
hemisphere,  they 
found  it  a  vast 
wilderness,  inhab- 
ited by  a  horde  of 
savages,  with  "  un- 
tutored minds," 
the  victims  of  ig- 
norance and  su- 
perstition. It  is, 
however,  certain  that  some  of  the  more  advanced  Indian  tribes  of  the 
South  were  supplied  with  litters  of  some  sort,  which  they  used  on 
special  occasions,  although  of  very  rude  construction.!  These,  how- 
ever, were  unsuited  to  the  exigencies  of  a  people  that  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  the  refinements  of  civilized  life  in  a  quarter  of  the  globe 
where  wheeled  vehicles  were  in  use,  both  for  business  and  pleasure. 
As  was  to  be  expected,  the  early  colonists,  being  necessitous,  could 

'  When  (in  1592)  Columbus  visited  Hispaniola  (now  Hayti),  the  young  cacique  met 
him  at  an  interview,  borne  in  a  litter  by  four  men.  (Irving's  Life  and  Voyages  of 
Christopher  Columbus,  Vol.  I,  eh.  7,  p.  225.) 


WHEELWRIGHTS  SENT  GOV.  ENDIGOTT.  397 

spare  but  little  time  in  gratifying  the  senses,  consequently  on  landing 
the  first  care  was  to  make  provision  for  tSie  body,  to  secure  which  the 
forests  must  be  leveled,  the  grounds  broken  up,  and  the  seeds  thrust 
in,  to  insure  the  future  harvest.^  To  accomplish  this  the  more  readily, 
the  services  of  the  wheelwright  were  required.  Accordingly,  among 
the  earliest  instructions  of  the  company  in  England  to  Gov.  Eudicott 
and  his  Council,  in  founding  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  we  find 
in  the  list  of  artisans  sent  over  in  1629  "there  is  one  Richard  Ewstead, 
a  wheelwright,  who  was  commended  to  us  by  Mr.  Davenport  for  a 
very  able  man,  though  not  without  his  imperfections.  We  pray  you 
take  notice  of  him,  and  regard  him  as  he  shall  well  deserve.  The 
benefit  of  his  labor  is  to  be  two  thirds  for  the  general  Company,  and 
one  third  for  Mr.  [Matthew]  Cradock,  our  Governor,  being  his  charges 
is  to  be  borne  according  to  that  proportion  ;  and  withal,  we  pray  you 
take  care  that  their  charges  who  are  for  partable  employments, 
whether  in  halves  or  thirds,  may  be  equally  defrayed  by  such  as  are 
to  have  the  benefit  of  their  labors,  according  to  each  party's  propor- 
tion. Their  several  agreements,  or  the  copies  thereof,  shall  be  (if 
God  permit)  sent  you  by  the  next  ships."  ^ 

In  May  of  the  same  year  (1629),  we  learn  from  the  company's  sec- 
ond letter  to  Governor  Eudicott,  that  "Richard  Claydon,  a  wheel- 
wright recommended  unto  us  by  Dr.  Wells,  to  be  both  a  good  and 
painful  workman,  and  of  an  orderly  life  and  conversation,  our  desire 
is,  that  upon  all  occasions  he  may  have  your  furtherance  and  good 
accommodation,  as  you  shall  find  him  by  his  endeavors  to  deserve  ;  to 
whom,  as  to  all  others  of  fitness  and  judgment,  let  some  of  our  ser- 
vants be  committed,  to  be  instructed  by  him  or  them  in  their  several 
arts,"  etc. 3 

The  men  whose  names  we  have  mentioned  were  unquestionably 
among  the  first  wheelwrights  sent  to  this  country,  whose  usefulness  in 

'  An  episode  in  the  early  history  of  New  England  proves  this  fact,  for  Captain 
Cromwell,  who,  as  privateer  in  the  West  Indies,  among  other  goods,  captured  a  sedan 
that  had  been  sent  by  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico  to  a  lady,  his  sister,  which  he  (the  cap- 
tain) afterwards  gave  to  Governor  John  Winthrop.  This  sedan,  the  governor  tells  us, 
"  he  had  no  use  for,"  and  it  was  subsequently  handed  over  to  D.  Aulnay,  an  officer  in 
his  Majesty's  flee  t,  on  his  visit  to  Boston  in  1646.  (Winthrop's  History  of  New  Eng- 
land, Vol.  II,  pp.  323-335.) 

*  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  First  Planters  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  p.  165. 

^Young's  Chronicles  of  the  First  Planters  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  p.  177. 


398  AMEBICAN  WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 

supplying  the  colonists  with  carts,  wagons,  and  the  implements  required 
in  cultivating  the  soil  will  not  be  disputed.  From  such  small  begin- 
nings, as  the  sequel  will  show,  has  art  progressed  in  America,  that  now 
we  may  boldly  challenge  the  world  to  excel  us,  either  in  lightness, 
gracefulness,  or  durability,  when  applied  to  carriage  manufacture. 
Although  we  have  borrowed  many  improvements  from  Europeans,  yet 
we  have  invented  many  entirely  our  own,  thus  imparting  to  our  vehic- 
ular nomenclature  a  specially  distinctive  American  character.  Indeed, 
a  large  number  of  our  pleasure  carriages  have  no  counterpart  in  any 
other  land. 

While  this  country  was  a  dependency  of  Great  Britain,  no  carriages 
of  any  note  were  manufactured  here,  and  but  few  used.  There  was, 
to  be  sure,  now  and  then,  one  to  be  found  among  the  wealthy  English 
families  settled  in  Boston  ^  and  the  vicinity ;  unwieldy  and  cumbrous 
indeed,  emblazoned  with  family  crests  on  the  panels,  and  set  off  with 
characteristic  gewgaws  and  finery,  attended  in  their  movements  by 
importations  of  liveried  menials,  whose  presence  rendered  them  odious 
in  the  eyes  and  abhorrent  to  the  feelings  of  the  less  wealthy  and 
plainer  class  of  people.  In  Virginia,  too,  some  of  these  "gentry,"  in 
the  earlier  days  of  its  history,  showed  themselves  off  in  their  European 
coaches,  to  the  amazement  of  their  neighbors.  Indeed,  those  who  rode 
and  those  that  "  footed  it "  were  members  of  distinct  classes  —  plebe- 
ian and  aristocratic  —  until  the  days  of  the  Eevolution.  When  the 
Eev.  Thomas  Hooker,  in  1636,  traveled  inland  from  Newton,  Massa- 
chusetts, to  Hartford,  Connecticut,  with  a  few  colonists,  such  was  the 
scarcity  of  suitable  wheeled  vehicles,  that  his  wife,  who  was  an  invalid, 
had  to  be  carried  the  entire  route  in  a  horse-litter.  Even  more  than 
forty  years  had  flown  before  a  monthly  post  was  started  between  Bos- 
ton and  New  York  City,  by  the  provincial  governor,  Lovelace  (Jan. 
1,  1673),  so  limited  were  the  requirements  of  commerce. 

Three  years  later  (1676)  there  were  only  twenty  "car-men"  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  against  these  stringent  laws  were  enacted,  after 

'  Coaches  appear  to  have  been  introduced  into  Boston  about  the  year  1GG9  At  the 
funeral  of  the  Hon.  William  Taiber  (lieutenant-governor  of  Massachusetts  under  Eag- 
laud),  there  was  in  attendance  "  a  great  uumber  of  geutiy  in  their  coaches,  chaises,  etc., 
and  an  abundance  of  spectators."  (See  The  Boston  News  Letter  for  March  9, 1732  )  We 
have  seen  it  stated  in  Harper's  Weekly,  that  the  first  coach  or  private  carriage  imported 
into  America  was  in  1770,  by  Lindley  Murray,  the  father  of  the  eminent  grammarian. 
It  will  appear,  as  we  proceed  with  this  history,  that  the  above  is  a  mistake. 


EABLY  COACHES  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  399 

being  enrolled.  They  were  ordered  for  Q>d.  to  draw  an  ordinary  load, 
and  for  3cZ.  per  load  weekly  to  remov^e  from  the  city  the  dirt  collected 
in  the  streets.  The  "dustmen"  getting  angry  in  consequence,  the 
cartmen  refused  to  comply  with  the  ordinance,  when  the  "  Scout  [sher- 
iffs] Burgomeesters  and  Schepens  "  forthwith  "  dismayed  "  the  entire 
body  by  divesting  all  of  their  licenses  who  should  not  appear  as  usual 
at  the  public  dock,  pay  a  fine,  and  make  their  submission.  Only  two 
succumbed,  and  the  rest  were  enjoined  from  further  business.  So  late 
as  1784,  carts  were  not  allowed  to  have  any  tires  on  the  wheels,  for 
fear  of  injuring  the  streets. 

The  first  post-route  between  New  York  City  and  Philadelphia  appears 
to  have  been  established  in  1693,  when  the  mails  went  through  once  in 
a  fortnight.  Such  was  the  ill  condition  of  the  road  that  twelve  years 
afterwards  (1705)  it  is  recorded,  ''The  Philadelphia  post  is  not  yet 
come  in  [at  New  York]  ;  it  is  supposed  that  the  three  days  of  rainy 
weather  has  hindered  him." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  when,  according  to  Watson, 
a  hack  had  not  yet  been  heard  of,  there  were  some  two  or  three 
coaches  in  use  in  Philadelphia.  William  Penn,  the  founder  of  the  city, 
says  in  a  note  to  James  Logan,  written  in  1700,  "  Let  John  [his  black] 
have  the  coach  and  horses  put  in  it,  for  Pennsburg  from  the  city."^  In 
another  letter  he  mentions  his  "calash,"  and  requests  the  justices  to 
have  bridges  built  over  the  Pennepack  and  other  streams,  for  his  car- 
riage to  pass  over.  James  Reed,  a  very  aged  gentleman,  who  died 
about  one  hundred  years  later,  said  he  could  well  remember  when 
there  were  only  eight  four-wheeled  carriages  kept  in  all  the  Province. 

Five  of  these  were  coaches,  belonging  respectively  to  the  governor 
(Gordon),  Jonathan  Dickinson,  Isaac  Norris,  Andrew  Hamilton,  and 
Anthony  Palmer;  and  three  four-wheeled  chairs,  owned  by  James 
Logan,  of  Stenton,  David  Lloyd,  of  Chester,  and  Lawrence  Growden, 
of  Bucks.  Under  the  unostentatious  government  of  Penn  and  his 
immediate  successors,  a  carriage  was  not  deemed  a  necessary  append- 
age, either  of  wealth  or  respectability.  Merchants  and  professional 
gentlemen  were  quite  content  to  keep  a  one-horse  chair.  These  had 
none  of  the  present  trappings  of  silver  plate,  nor  were  the  bodies  var- 
nished ;  plain  paint  alone  adorned  them,  and  brass  rings  and  buckles 

'  We  are  indebted  to  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia  for  some  of  these  facts. 


400  AMERICAN  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 

were  all  the  ornaments  found  on  the  harness  ;  the  chairs  (chaises)  were 
without  springs,  and  leather  straps  (thorough-braces),  such  as  could 
now  be  made  for  fifty  dollars,  served  instead. 

As  early  as  1697  there  was  one  John  Clapp,  who  appears  to  have 
been  innkeeper,  poet,  and  wag,  living  in  the  Bowery,  "  two  miles  from 
the  post-office,"  which  was  then  considered  far  out  of  town.  In  an 
old  almanac,  printed  by  Bradford,^  among  other  curious  things  we  are 
told,  "It  is  now  one  year  since  the  first  hackney-coach  was  made  and 
kept  in  this  city,  by  John  Clapp,  for  the  accommodation  of  all  Persons 
desirous  to  hire  the  same.  From  the  Post-office  in  New  York  to  Jo. 
Clapp's  in  the  Bowery,  is  two  miles  (which  generally  is  the  bating-place 
where  gentlemen  take  leave  of  their  Friends,  going  so  long  a  journey), 
and  where  a  parting  glass  or  two  of  generous  wine. 

If  well  aj^ply'd,  makes  their  dull  Horses  feel 
One  si3ur  i'  th'  Head  is  worth  two  in  the  Heel." 

No  physician  in  these  primitive  times  visited  his  patients  in  a  carriage, 
as  they  now  do  ;  all  had  "  to  foot  it."  ^ 

In  the  same  year,  while  Clapp  was  running  his  "hack"  (Dec.  22, 
1697) ,  an  ordinance  was  passed  in  Albany,  New  York,  in  which  "  it  is 
Proclaimed  y*  all  Persons  who  enter  y*  Citty  with  slees  [sleighs]  and 
horses,  horseback  or  oyrwise  [otherwise],  shall  not  ride  faster  than 
foot-tap  throughout  y^  streets,  upon  Penalty  of  three  shillings  for  each 
offence."  Two  years  afterwards,  "  It  is  further  Resolved  and  thought 
convenient  that  a  Proclamation  be  proclaimed,  y'  no  Carmen  shall  here- 
after use  a  Cart  until  such  time  they  have  Mr.  Mayor's  Lycence  there- 
fore, upon  Penalty  of  forfeiting  y^  somme  of  six  shillings,  and  y'  no 
person  or  persons  shall  drive  there  horse  or  horses  in  slees  or  oyrwise 
through  y"  streets  of  this  Citty  faster  than  upon  a  stap,  upon  penalty 
of  forfeiting  y*  somme  of  three  shillings,  toties  quoties."  It  might 
interest  us  did  we  know  exactly  what  effect  these  municipal  ordinances 
had  upon  the  sturdy  Knickerbockers  of  the  sixteenth  century, : — whether 
they  were  enforced  or  not. 

'  William  Bradford  was  one  of  the  earliest  printers  in  America.  He  began  busi- 
ness first  in  Philadelphia,  afterwards  removing  to  New  York,  where  he  died  in  1752,  at 
the  age  of  ninety-four.  A  monument  erected  to  his  memory  is  still  standing  in  Trinity 
churchyard. 

^See  Valentine's  Manual  of  the  Common  Council  of  New  York,  for  1853,  p.  456. 


EARLY  POSTING  IN  AMERICA.  401 

The  Philadelphia  "  Weekly  Mercuiy  "  notifies  its  readers  that  "  The 
Post  sets  out  from  New  York  and  Boston  the  14th  Day  of  this  Instant 
March  [1719],  and  are  to  perform  these  Stages  Weekly  till  December 
next.  Which  alteration  of  the  Post  will  occasion  this  News  Paper  to 
come  forth  every  Thursday,  on  which  day  the  Post  sets  out  from 
Philadelphia." 

The  same  paper  (Nov.  30, 1732)  says,  "On  Monday  next  the  North- 
ern Post  sets  out  from  New  York,  in  order  to  perform  his  stage  but 
once  a  Fortnight,  during  the  Winter  Quarter ;  the  Southern  Post 
changes  also,  which  will  cause  this  Paper  to  come  out  on  Tuesdays 
during  that  Time.  The  Colds  which  have  infested  the  Northern  Colo- 
nies have  also  been  troublesome  here,  few  Families  having  escaped  the 
same,  several  have  been  carry'd  off  by  the  Cold,  among  whom  was 
David  Brinnail,  in  the  77th.  Year  of  his  Age,  he  was  the  first  Man 
that  had  a  Brick  House  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  and  was  much 
esteem'd  for  his  just  and  upright  dealing.  There  goes  a  Eeport  here, 
that  the  Lord  Baltimore  and  his  Lady  are  arrived  in  Maryland,  but 
the  Southern  Post  being  not  yet  come  in,  the  said  Report  wants 
Confirmation." 

In  1709  the  posts  which  stood  along  the  walks  "of  the  Broadway" 
were  ordered  removed,  as  being  unsightly,  and  no  longer  eligible  for 
tying  horses.  It  was  nearly  thirty  years  later  (1738)  before  the  first 
coach  made  its  appearance  in  the  "Empire  City."  This  was  owned  by 
Governor  John  Montgomerie,  together  with  a  fine  set  of  harness. 
Besides  this  he  kept  a  four-wheeled  chaise,  for  which  another  set  of 
harness  was  provided,  and  likewise  an  elegant  servant's  saddle.^ 

Miss  Sarah  Kuight,  a  Boston  lady  who  visited  New  York  City  in 
1704,  tells  us,  "  Their  Diversions  in  the  Winter  is  Riding  Sleys  about 
three  or  four  Miles  out  of  Town,  where  they  have  houses  of  entertain- 
ment at  a  place  called  the  Bowery,  and  some  go  to  friend's  Houses, 
who  handsomely  treat  them.     Mr.  Burroughs  carry'd  his  spouse  and 


'  Such  was  the  poverty  of  many  khicls  of  business  in  the  early  days  of  our  history, 
that  we  find  tliere  were  some  "  jaclcs  of  all  trades."  One  Judith  Vincent  advertises  in 
the  Nev}  York  Gazette,  under  date  of  May  1,  1736,  "  An  Indian  servant  named  Stoffels, 
who  is  a  house-carpenter,  cooper,  wheel-iuright,  and  is  a  good  butcher,  also,  who  is 
supposed  to  have  escaped  in  ncaium  towards  Connecticut  or  Rhode  Island."  We  have 
somewhere  read  that  Lady  Murray  owned  the  lirst  coach  in  New  York  (in  1745),  but  if 
our  lecord  is  correct,  such  a  statement  cannot  be  true. 


402  AMERICAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

Daughter  and  myself  out  to  one  Madame  Dowes,  a  Gentlewoman  that 
liA^ed  at  a  farm  House,  who  gave  us  a  handsome  entertainment  of  live 
or  six  Dishes  and  choice  Beer  and  metheglin,  Cyder,  &c.,  all  which 
shee  said  was  the  produce  of  her  farm.  I  believe  we  mett  fifty  or  sixty 
sleys  that  day;  they  fly  with  great  swiftness,  and  some  are  so  furious 
that  they'll  turn  out  of  the  path  for  none  except  a  Loaden  Cart." 

Thirty  years  after  John  Clapp  entered  upon  the  hack  business  in 
New  York,  one  Mr.  Skelton — as  we  learn  from  the  "Pennsylvania 
Gazette "  —  informed  the  citizens  by  advertisement  that  he  had  "  a 
four-wheeled  chaise  in  Chestnut  street  [Philadelphia]  to  be  hired." 
The  terms  were  "for  four  persons  to  Germantown,  12  shillings  and  6 
pence  ;  to  Frankford,  10  shillings,  and  to  Gray's  Ferry,  7  shillings  and 
6  pence  to  10  shillings." 

The  earliest  practical  wheelwright  who  located  in  New  York  City 
was  a  Scotchman  named  William  Campbell,  an  emigrant  from  Isla, 
who  was  induced  to  cross  the  ocean  in  1738  by  the  offer  of  a  free  grant 
of  land  from  the  Province,  then  a  dependency  of  England.  This  man 
died  here    in  1763. 

It  is  evident  that  at  this  time  there  were  not  sufficient  skilled  work- 
men in  the  country  to  supply  the  demand,  consequently  both  chaises 
and  horses  had  to  be  imported  from  abroad.  Doctor  William  Shippen, 
who  practiced  in  Philadelphia  in  1745,  writes  to  George  Barney  (cel- 
ebrated for  procuring  good  horses) ,  saying,  "  I  want  a  genteel  carriage- 
horse  of  about  fifteen  hands  high,  round  bodied,  full  of  courage,  close 
ribbed,  dark  chestnut,  not  a  swift  pacer,  if  that  must  enhance  his  price. 
I  much  like  the  pacer  you  procured  for  James  Logan,"  previously  men- 
tioned.^    A  few  years  later  (1751)  the  doctor  writes  to  John  Good- 

'  In  the  olden  time,  the  horses  most  esteemed  were  pacers.  To  this  end  the  breed 
was  propagated  with  care,  and  pace  racers  were  held  in  preference.  The  Narragansett 
racers  of  Rhode  Island  were  in  such  repute  that  they  were  sent  for  at  much  trouble  and 
expense  by  some  few  who  were  choice  in  their  selections.  It  may  amuse  the  present 
generation  to  p-sruse  the  history  of  one  such  horse,  spoken  of  in  a  letter  of  the  cele- 
ebrated  Eip  Van  Dam,  who  (1731)  was  president  of  the  Council,  and  on  the  death  of 
Gov.  Montgomerie  was  ex  officio  governor  of  New  York.  The  letter  under  date  (1711) 
is  addressed  to  Jonathan  Dickinson,  of  Philadelphia.  He  recounts  the  difficulties  he 
had  encountered  in  procuring  a  horse.  It  had  been  shipped  on  a  sloop  at  Rhode  Island, 
and  on  the  passage  it  jumped  overboard  and  swam  to  its  former  home.  Afterward  it 
was  reshipped,  and  after  a  fourteen  days'  passage  it  reached  New  York,  much  reduced 
in  flesh  and  spirit.  This  horse  cost  £32,  and  the  freight  fifty  shillings.  From  New 
York  he  was  sent  inland  to  Philadelphia  "by  the  next  post,"  i.  e.,  postman.    It  is  shown 


CHAISE-BUILDING  IN  NEW   YORK,  403 

man,  of  London,  discouraging  him  from  sending  out  two  chairs  or 
chaises,  saying  that  trade  was  dull  in  Philadelphia.  Unquestionably 
these  chaises  were  of  the  English  gig  class  (page  319),  very  popular 
in  that  country  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  writing. 

In  1746  one  Abram  Carpenter,  a  cooper  in  Dock  Street,  Philadel- 
phia, "near  the  Golden  Flagg,"  advises  the  public  that  he  has  two 
chairs  and  some  saddle-horses  for  hire,  in  doggerel,  as  follows :  — 

"  Two  handsome  chairs, 

With  very  good  geers, 

With  horses  or  without, 

To  carry  friends  about, 
Likewise  saddle-horses,  if  gentlemen  please, 
To  carry  them  handsomely,  much  at  their  ease, 
Is  to  be  hired  by  Abram  Carpenter,  cooper, 
Well  known  as  a  very  good  cask-hooper." 

The  following  items  in  the  character  of  advertisements  are  copied 
from  "The  New  York  Gazette,  revived  in  the  Weekly  Post  Boy,"  and 
are  of  interest  here.  The  first  is  dated  Nov.  16,  1747,  reading  thus  : 
"  To  be  sold  a  handsome  Coach  and  Harness,  with  all  the  apurtenances 
thereunto  belonging.  Enquire  of  George  Burnet  near  Coenties  Mar- 
ket." The  next,  under  date  of  March  6,  1749,  informs  us  that  there 
was  "stolen  out  of  His  Excellency's  Coach,  last  Wednesday  night 
between  12  and  1  o'clock,  two  whitish  Cloth  Cushions,  lac'd  round  the 
seams  with  worsted  Lace  of  the  same  colour  (from  the  Broad- Way 
near  the  Post-Office) .  Whoever  can  give  Information  thereof  shall  be 
rewarded,  and  if  not  returned  soon  Twenty  Shillings  Reward  and  no 
Questions  ask'd  by  Nathaniel  Lawrence." 

The  third,  dated  Jan.  22,  1750,  lets  us  know  that  "Chaise  Boxes, 
Chair  and  Kittereen  Boxes,  with  all  sorts  of  Wheels  and  Carriages  for 
the  same,  are  made  by  James  Hallett,  on  Golden  Hill,  at  the  sign  of 
the  Ohair  Wheels  at  the  most  reasonable  Rates,  with  all  Expedition." 

Again  we  read  under  date  of  April  22,  1752,  "James  Hallet,  Wheel- 
wright, at  the  sign  of  the  Riding-Chair,  near  the  Spring  Garden,  in  the 
Broad-way,  makes  and  mends  all  sorts  of  Wheels;    such  as  Coach, 

in  the  letter  that  the  same  post-rider  rode  the  entire  route  from  city  to  city  on  horse- 
back. We  are  told  of  the  pacer  that  he  is  no  beauty,  "  although  so  high-priced,"  save 
in  his  legs ;  he  will  never  stand  still,  always  plays  and  acts,  will  take  a  glass  of  wine, 
beer,  or  cider,  and  probably  would  drink  a  dram  in  a  cold  morning.  —  Watson's  Annals 
of  Philadelphia. 


404  AMEBIC  AN  WOBLD    ON    WHEELS. 

Chariot,  Chaise,  and  Chair  Wheels;  likewise  Kittereeii  and  Chair 
Boxes;  also  Waggons  and  Carts,  after  the  best  Manner,  with  great 
Care  and  Expedition,  at  the  most  reasonable  Rates." 

How  the  old  New-Yorkers  amused  themselves  is  thus  told  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Burnaby,  who  visited  the  city  in  1750 :  "  There  are  several 
houses  pleasantly  situated  up  the  East  River,  near  New  York,  where  it 
is  common  to  have  turtle  feasts.  These  happen  once  or  twice  a  week. 
Thirty  or  forty  gentlemen  and  ladies  meet  and  dine  together ;  drink 
tea  in  the  afternoon ;  fish  and  amuse  themselves  till  evening,  and  then 
return  home  in  Italian  chaises  (the  fashionable  carriage  in  this  part  of 
America),  a  gentleman  and  lady  in  each  chaise."  At  this  time  these 
chaises  were  so  numerous  that,  according  to  a  notice  in  the  "New  York 
Gazette,"  there  were  upwards  of  seventy  chairs  and  chaises  at  a  horse- 
race on  Hempstead  Plains,  Long  Island,  from  New  York  City  alone. 
It  was  computed  at  the  time  that  more  than  a  thousand  horses  crowded 
the  ferry  to  Brooklyn  on  that  occasion. 

From  Mear's  "Picture  of  Philadelphia,"  we  learn  that  in  1752  an 
accurate  list  was  taken  of  the  names  of  every  citizen  who  kept  a  four- 
wheeled  chaise  of  any  kind,  from  which  it  appeared  that  thirty-seven 
was  the  whole  mniiber.     Single-horse  chaises  were  more  numerous. 

The  "  Philadelphia  and  Perth- Amboy  stages  "  are  thus  advertised  in 
the  "Pennsylvania  Journal,"  under  date  of  Nov.  6,  1756  :  "Notice  is 
hereby  given,  that  we  the  subscribers,  John  Butler,  of  Philadelphia, 
at  the  Sign  of  the  Death  of  the  Fox,  in  Strawberry  Alley,  begins  his 
Stage  on  Tuesday,  the  Ninth  of  this  Instant  November,  from  his  House 
and  will  proceed  with  his  Waggon  to  the  House  of  Nathaniel  Parker, 
at  Trenton  Ferry ;  and  from  thence  the  Goods  and  Passengers  to  be 
carried  over  the  Ferry  to  the  House  kept  by  George  Moschel,  where 
Francis  Holman  will  meet  the  above  eTohn  Butler,  and  exchange  their 
Passengers,  &c.,  and  then»proceed  on  Wednesday  throughout  Prince- 
town  and  New-Brunswick,  to  the  House  of  Obadiah  Airies,  in  Perth- 
Amboy,  where  will  be  a  good  Boat,  with  all  Conveniences  necessary, 
kept  by  John  Thomson  and  William  Waller,  for  the  Reception  of  Pas- 
sengers, &c.,  who  will  proceed  on  Thursday  Morning,  w^ithout  Delay, 
for  New-York,  and  there  land  at  Whitehall,  where  the  said  Waller  and 
Thomson  will  give  Attendance  at  the  House  of  Abraham  Bockeys, 
until  Monday  Morning  following,  and  then  will  return  to  Perth- Amboy, 
where  Francis  Holman  on  Tuesday  Morning  following  w^ill  attend,  and 


NEW   YOBK  AND  PHILADELPHIA   STAGES.  405 

return  with  his  Waggon  to  Trenton  Ferry  to  meet  John  Butler,  of 
Philadelphia,  and  there  exchange  their  Passengers,  &c.,  for  New  York 
and  Philadelphia. 

"  It  is  hoped  that  as  these  Stages  are  attended  with  a  considerable 
Expense,  for  the  better  accommodating  Passengers,  that  they  will 
merit  the  Favours  of  the  Piiblick ;  and  whoever  will  be  pleased  to 
favour  them  with  their  Custom,  shall  be  kindly  used,  and  have  due 
Attendance  given  them  l)y  their  humble  servants,  John  Butler, 
Francis  Holman,  John  Thomson,  and  William  Waller." 

The  "  Bordentown  Stage  Continued,"  which  appears  to  have  had  some 
opposition,  is  thus  advertised  in  the  Philadelphia  "Weekly  Mercury," 
in  1757  :  "Joseph  Borden's  stage  boat,  Joseph  Canida  master,  attends 
at  the  crooked-billet  wharf  every  monday  and  tuesday,  and  his  shallop, 
Daniel  Harrison  Master  at  the  same  place  every  friday  and  Saturday, 
stage  waggons  attends  the  said  boats  the  stage  boats  at  Amboy  com- 
manded by  Aaron  Edward.  As  to  the  owners  of  the  Burlington  stage 
boasting  of  their  advantages  being  superior  to  mine,  I  shall  not  take 
the  trouble  to  make  reply  too,  because  the  publick  by  this  time  is 
the  best  judges  of  our  stages  and  their  advantages,  only  shall  just  note 
the  last  clause  of  their  advertisement,  that  is,  they  say  Ave  are  one  tide 
more  upon  the  water,  than  they  are,  which  in  fact  is  saying  we  are  always 
two  tides  upon  our  passage.  Well  done  brother  adventurers,  that  is  a 
large  one.  All  gentlemen  and  ladies  that  please  to  fiivor  me  with  their 
business,  may  depend  upon  the  utmost  care  and  dispatch  of  their  hum- 
ble servant  Joseph  Borden." 

The  "Pennsylvania  Journal"  for  the  same  year  advertises  :  "Whereas 
the  Stage  Boats  imploy'd  between  Philadelphia  and  JVew  York  are 
found  very  advantageous  to  the  Public.  Therefore  the  Subscribers 
have  erected  a  Stage  from  Philadelphia  to  Annapolis  in  Maryland  for 
which  Purpose  Jonathan  Jordan  sets  off  from  Loyd's  Wharf  every  Sat- 
urday and  proceeds  to  Frederick  Town  to  a  Stage  Boat  which  proceeds 
to  Annapolis  and  to  continue  weekly.  And  as  this  undertaking  will  be 
considerably  expensive  it  is  hoped  the  Public  will  give  it  proper  Encour- 
agement and  it  shall  be  performed  at  moderate  Rates  by  John  Hughes 
and  Comp.  N.  B.  The  Land  Carriage  is  21  Miles  and  the  said  Jordan 
leaves  Reedy  Island  on  Tuesday's." 

The  enterprising  John  Butler,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  in  company  with 
three  others,  ran  the  Philadelphia  and  Perth-Amboy  stages,  two  years 


406  AMEBIC  AN  WORLD  ON   WHEELS. 

later  (1758)  advertises  in  the "  Weekly  Mercury  "  that  his  "Philadel- 
phia Stage  Waggon  and  New  York  Stage  Boat  perform  their  Stages 
twice  a  week,"  according  to  the  following  programme  :  "John  Butler, 
with  his  waggon  sets  out  on  Mondays  from  his  House,  at  the  Sign  of 
the  Death  of  the  Fox,  in  Strawberry  ally,  and  drives  the  same  day  to 
Trenton  Ferry,  when  Francis  Holman  meets  him  and  proceeds  on  Tues- 
day to  Brunswick,  and  the  passengers  and  goods  being  shifted  into  the 
waggon  of  Isaac  Fitzrandolph  he  takes  them  to  the  New  Blazing  Star 
to  Jacob  Fitzrandolph's  the  same  day,  where  Rubin  Fitzrandolph,  with 
a  boat  well  suted,  will  receive  them,  and  take  them  to  New  York  that 
night.  John  Butler  returning  to  Philadelphia  on  Tuesday  with  the 
passengers  and  goods  delivered  to  him  by  Francis  Holman,  will  again 
set  out  for  Trenton  Ferry  on  Thursday,  and  Francis  Holman,  &c.,  will 
carry  his  passengers  and  goods,  with  the  same  expedition  as  above  to 
New-York." 

We  have  shown  that  a  mail  route  had  been  established  between  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  in  1693.  It  is  on  record  that  as  late  as  1730 
"the  post  was  performed  to  Albany  from  New  York  on  foot."  But 
matters  improve.  We  find  in  the  '' New  York  Gazette  "  that  the  "Fly- 
ing Machine  kept  by  John  Mercereau,  at  the  New  Blazing  Star  Ferry 
near  New  York,  sets  off  from  Powles  Hook  every  Monday,  Wednes- 
day, and  Friday  Mornings,  for  Philadelphia,  and  performs  the  Journey 
in  a  Day  and  a  Half,  for  the  Summer  season,  tiil  the  1st  of  November, 
from  that  Time  to  go  twice  a  Week  till  the  first  of  May,  when  they 
again  perform  it  three  Times  a  Week.  When  the  Stages  go  only 
twice  a  Week,  they  set  off  Mondays  and  Thursdays.  The  Waggons 
in  Philadelphia  set  out  from  the  Sign  of  the  George,  in  Second-street, 
the  same  Morning.  The  Passengers  are  desired  to  cross  the  Ferry  the 
Evening  before,  as  the  Stages  must  set  off  early  the  next  Morning. 
The  Price  for  each  Passenger  is  Twenty  Shillings,  Proc.  and  goods  as 
usual.     Passengers  going  Part  of  the  Way  to  Pay  in  Proportion. 

"  As  the  Proprietor  has  made  such  Improvements  upon  the  Machines, 
one  of  which  is  in  Imitation  of  a  Coach,  he  hopes  to  merit  the  Favor 
of  the  Publick.     John  Merceeeau." 

Watson,  in  the  "Annals  of  Philadelphia,"  tells  us  that  "formerly  liv- 
eiy-stables  and  hacks  (things  of  modern  introduction)  were  not  in  use.i 

1  Watson  wrote  his  Annals  in  1811.  We  have  shown  in  these  pages  that  hacks 
{fiacres)  were  introduced  into  Paris  by  Nicholas  Savage,  in  1650,  and  in  a  foot-note 


SCARCITY  OF  EARLY   VEHICLES.  407 

Those  who  kept  horses  and  vehicles  were  much  restricted  to  those  only 
whose  establishments  embraced  their  own  stables.  The  few  who  kept 
their  own  horses  without  such  appendages  placed  them  at  the  taverns. 
They  who  depended  upon  hire  were  accustomed  to  procure  them  of 
such  persons  as  had  frequent  uses  for  a  horse  to  labor  in  their  business, 
who  to  diminish  their  expense  occasionally  hired  them  in  the  circle  of 
their  acquaintance.  In  this  way  many  who  were  merchants  (the  ances- 
tors of  those  who  have  now  a  horse  and  gig  for  almost  every  son)  were 
fain  to  get  their  draymen  to  exempt  a  horse  from  his  usual  drudgery 
for  the  benefit  of  his  employers  for  a  country  airing.  A  drayman  who 
kept  two  or  three  such  horses  for  porterage  usually  kept  a  plain  chair 
to  meet  such  occasions.  If  the  vehicles  were  homelier  than  now,  they 
were  sure  to  be  drawn  by  better  horses,  and  looked  in  all  respects 
more  like  the  suitable  equipments  of  substantial  livers  than  the  hired 
and  glaring  fripperies  of  the  livery  fineries  of  the  present  sumptuous 
days.  The  ladies  took  long  walks  to  the  miry  grounds  of  the  South 
Street  Theater,  with  the  chance  of  calling  for  hacks  for  their  convey- 
ance. There  is  a  slight  recollection  of  a  solitary  hack  which  used  to 
stand  before  the  Conestoga  Inn,  in  High  Street,  an  unproductive  con- 
cern, which  could  only  obtain  an  occasional  call  from  the  strangers 
visiting  the  inn  for  a  ride  out  of  town.  To  have  rode  in  town  would 
have  been  regarded  as  gross  afiectation,  practically  reasoning  that,  as 
our  limbs  were  bestowed  before  hacks  were  devised,  they  should  be 
used  and  worn  out  first,  before  the  others  were  encouraged." 

The  same  author  goes  on:  "Mrs.  Shoemaker,  aged  ninety-five,  told 
me  that  pleasure-carriages  were  very  rare  in  her  youth.  She  remem- 
bered that  her  grandfather  had  one,  and  that  he  used  to  say  he  was 
almost  ashamed  to  appear  abroad  in  it,  although  it  was  only  a  one- 
horse  chair,  lest  he  should  be  thought  effeminate  and  proud.  She 
remembered  old  Richard  Wistar  had  one  also.  When  she  was  about 
twenty  (1760),  Charles  Willing,  merchant,  brought  a  calash  coach 
with  him  from  England.  This  and  Judge  William  Allen's  were  the 
only  ones  she  had  ever  seen."  i 

Soon  after  this  the  English  curricle  was  introduced  into  New  York, 
where  it  immediately  became  popular  with  a  certain  class  of  pleasure- 
intimated  tliat  there  is  reason  for  believing  tliat  they  were  used  in  London  still  earlier, 
la  1634.     This  would  make  them  over  one  hundred  years  in  use  at  this  time. 
See  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia. 


408  AMEBIC  AN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 

seekers,  ambitious  for  show  on  the  Third  Avenue,  the  Harlem,  and 
the  Bloomingdale  Roads,  then  the  principal  thoroughfares  leading  out 
of  the  city.  These  curricles  were  always  driven  tandem,  with  two 
horses,  one  in  the  shafts,  another  in  front,  both  being  decked  out  with 
gay  trappings.  Tlie  less  wealthy  and  plainer  class  of  citizens  were 
accustomed  to  view  these  ''-  shows  "  with  contempt  and  scorn.  A  New 
York  newspaper,  published  in  1761,  announces  "for  sale,  a  curricle 
but  little  used,  with  a  pair  of  blood-horses,  at  Larey's  stable,"  the 
only  allusion  we  have  seen  to  them  in  print. 

The  oldest  coach  in  this  country  is  preserved  at  the  country-seat  of 
the  late  James  W.  Beekman,  Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island,  New  York. 
It  formerly  belonged  to  his  ancestor,  who  imported  it  from  London, 
where  it  was  made  in  1762,  the  year  in  which  the  state  coach  of 
George  III  was  built.  It  is  so  nearly  like  those  represented  in  Fel- 
ton's  work  that  wo  have  not  thought  it  advisable  to  present  the  reader 
with  a  drawing  of  it. 

At  the  time  when  these  colonies  were  taking  revolutionary  measures 
against  the  mother-country,  there  were  not  more  than  four  or  five 
coaches  in  all  New  York.  One  of  these  belonged  to  Sir  Henry  Moore, 
the  absent  governor-in-chief;  another  to  Cadwallader  Golden,  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor ;  Jacob  Walton,  whose  mansion  in  a  changed  state  still 
stands  on  Pearl  Street,  near  Franklin  Square,  the  third ;  Mrs.  Alexan- 
der, the  fourth  ;  and  Eobert  Murray,  the  other.  This  latter  gentleman, 
who  belonged  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  resided  on  Murray  Hill, 
near  the  place  of  this  writing,  in  a  measure  to  avoid  the  scandal  of  being 
thought  proud  and  vainglorious  in  an  age  when  coaches  were  treated 
with  scorn,  called  his  merely  a  "  leathern  conveniency,"  to  the  amuse- 
ment of  "  the  world's  people." 

Indeed,  such  was  the  prejudice  against  the  aristocracy  of  those  Avho 
rode  in  coaches,  and  particularly  those  holding  office  under  the  govern- 
ment of  "His  Britannic  Majesty,"  that  when  in  J^ovember,  1765,  the 
odious  Stamp  Act  was  about  to  be  enforced,  the  populace,  "  in  its  maj- 
esty," proceeded  to  the  foot  of  Wall  Street  (Fort  Walls,  as  it  was  then 
called),  where  the  mob  broke  open  the  stable  of  Lieut.  Golden,  and, 
taking  out  his  English  coach,  after  drawing  it  through  the  principal 
streets  of  the  city  in  triumph,  marched  to  the  Common,  where  a  gal- 
lows had  been  erected,  on  one  end  of  which  Colden's  Q^^J  was  sus- 
pended, with  a  stamped  bill  of  lading  in  his  hand,  a  drum  at  his  back, 


CARRIAGE-MAKERS   FROM  DUBLIN.  409 

—  in  allusion  to  his  having  been  a  drummer  in  the  Scotch  Pretender's 
service  in  17G0, — and  a  label  on  his  breast,  inscribed,  "The  Rebel 
Drummer  in  the  year  1745."  At  the  other  end  hung  an  e^gy  of  the 
devil,  with  a  boot  in  one  hand,  —  complimentary  to  Lord  Bute,  — as  it 
was  supposed  that  Golden  acted  entirely  at  the  suggestion  of  Satan, 
and  therefore  the  latter  was  a  fitting  companion  of  his.  After  hanging 
there  some  time,  the  effigies  and  gallows  entire,  being  preceded  by 
the  coach,  were  carried  in  procession  to  the  gate  of  the  fort,  where  it 
remamed  for  some  time,  from  whence  it  was  removed  to  the  Bowlmg 
Green,  under  the  muzzles  of  the  fort  guns,  where  a  bonfire  was  made 
of  the  fence  surrounding  the  green,  when  the  drummer,  coach,  and  devil 
were  consumed,  as  a  sacrifice  to  Liberty,  together  with  a  single-horse 
chair,  two  sleighs,  and  several  light  vehicles. 

The  earliest  importers  of  carriages  expressly  for  sale  were  the  broth- 
ers Elkanah  and  William  Deane,  who  came  as  emigrants  from  Dublin 
in  1766,  bringing  with  them  several  workmen.  On  arrival  here  they 
seem  to  have  changed  their  minds,  and  instead  of  continuing  the  impor- 
tation they  announced  by  advertisement  that  they  contemplated  open- 
ing, "  as  a  new  affiiir,"  a  shop  for  the  construction  of  all  manner  of  car- 
riages, at  five  per  cent  below  importation  prices,  and  mention  that  they 
have  brought  out  workmen  at  great  expense,  to  build  "  coaches,  chariots, 
landaus,  phaetons,  post-chaises,  curricles,  chairs,  sedans,  and  sleighs," 
a  catalogue  ample  enough,  but  too  full  for  the  market  at  the  time,  and 
so  they  offer  in  addition  "to  gild  and  japan,  and  carve  and  paint," 
showing  that  they  did  not  entertain  "  great  expectations  "  of  a  large 
trade  in  manufacturino;  carrias^es. 

The  following,  copied  from  an  old  newspaper  dated  May  19,  1766, 
is  interesting,  as  showing  that  the  Deanes  could  not  depend  entirely  on 
the  workmen  they  had  "brought  out,  at  great  expense,"  from  Ireland  : 
"Run  away  from  the  subscribers,  on  Tuesday  last,  Richard  Barlow,  by 
trade  a  coach  harness-maker.  He  had  on  when  he  went  away,  a  Claret 
colour'd  Coat  and  Breeches,  a  striped  Cotton  and  silk  jacket ;  he  had 
short  Curl'd  Hair,  is  abou,t  five  Feet  seven  Inches  high,  and  for  some 
Time  before  he  run  away  had  a  condemn'd  down  Look  in  his  Counte- 
nance, Avhich  proceeded  from  his  being  detected  in  a  dishonest  Action. 
As  he  is  much  in  debt  to  the  subscribers,  all  Masters  of  vessels  are  for- 
bid to  carry  him  off"  at  their  Peril.  Who  ever  secures  the  said  Richard 
Barlow,  so  that  the  subscribers  may  have  him  again,  or  lodge  him  in 


410  AMERICAN-   WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

any  of  His  Majesty's  Gaols,  shall  have  Five  Dollars  reward.  Given 
under  our  hands  at  New  York,  this  17th  of  May  1766,  Elkanah  and 
William  Deane."  ^ 

The  only  rival  to  the  Deanes  at  first  was  Samuel  Lawrence,  "wheel 
Wright,"  followed  in  1769  by  Elias  Anderson  and  John  DeWitt;  in 
1770,  by  Joseph  Chartres ;  in  1771,  by  David  Shaddle  ;  and  m  1773, 
by  David  Sawyer,  whose  principal  business  was  to  make  and  repair  the 
cartmen's  trucks,  but  when  occasion  required  were  ready  "to  fix"  the 
pleasure  carriages  of  the  citizens  "  in  the  best  manner  "  they  were  able 
to  do  it. 

The  stage-coach  from  New  York  to  Boston  left  the  "  Fresh- Water  on 
the  24th  of  June,  1772."  The  "  stage"  was  advertised  "  to  leave  each 
terminus,  once  in  a  fort-night,  fare  four-pence  per  mile,  New  York  cur- 
rency." It  took  two  days  to  reach  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  two 
more  to  get  to  Boston.  The  enterprising  proprietors  promised  a  weekly 
stage,  should  the  patronage  Avarrant  such  an  undertaking. 

This  year  (1772)  the  four-wheeled  carriages  h:id  increased  to  the 
number  of  eighty-eight  in  Philadelphia.-  William  Allen,  the  chief 
justice,  the  Widow  Lawrence  and  the  Widow  Martin,  were  the  only 
owners  of  coaches.  William  Peters  and  Thomas  Willing  were  the  only 
owners  of  landaus.  There  were  eighteen  chariots  in  the  lists,  of  which 
the  proprietor,  William  Penn,  and  the  lieutenant-governor,  John  Penn, 
had  each,  one.  Fifteen  chaises  completed  the  catalogue.  The  William 
Allen  before  mentioned,  who  resided  in  Water  Street,  had  a  coachman, 
who  was  a  great  "whip,"  imported  expressly  for  his  services  from  Eng- 
land, to  drive  his  coach,  with  four  black  horses.  To  show  his  skill  as 
a  driver,  he  gave  the  judge  a  whirl  around  the  shambles,  which  then 
stood  where  the  Jersey  Market  is  since  built,  and  turned  with  such 
dashing  science  as  to  put  the  judge  and  spectators  in  great  concern 
about  the  result.^ 


'  From  The  New  York  Gazette  and  Weekly  Post  Boy. 

*Iu  the  MS  journal  of  P.  Du  Simitiere,  preserved  in  the  Philadelphia  city  library, 
the  number  is  given  as  eighty-four.  This  gentleman,  a  native  of  Switzerland  came  to 
this  country  and  settled  in  Philadelphia  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago.  He  appears 
to  have  had  somewhat  of  a  literary  taste,  which  led  him  to  collect  in  five  volumes  a 
variety  of  items  relating  to  early  history.  Lossing  (American  Historical  Record,  Vol. 
I,  p.  513,  note)  says  Du  Simitiere's  volumes  contain  a  vast  amount  of  chaff,  and  yet  a 
large  quantity  of  valuable  grain  may  be  found  in  them. 

^  See  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia. 


LIMITED  FACILITIES   OF  TRAVEL.  411 

One  of  the  earliest  "  coach  and  harness  makers  "  in  Phihidelphia  was 
John  Bringhurst,'  who  in  1773-4  is  reported  to  have  built  the  first 
chair  or  chaise.  His  shop  was  located  on  Arch,  between  Fourth  and 
Fifth  Streets,  where  he  also  advertised  to  make  "all  kinds  of  coaches, 
chariots,  post-chaises,  phaetons,  waggons,  curricles,  chaises,  kittereens, 
and  whiskies,  all  of  the  newest  fashions."  This  was  some  twenty  years 
later  than  James  Hallet,  in  New  York,  had  done  the  same  thing  in  a 

smaller  way.     William  H.  Ent,  William  Fry,  and Cox,  with  the 

Ashmeads,  were  the  other  early  manufacturers  in  Pennsylvania. 

The  limited  facilities  extended  to  travelers  during  our  Eevolutionary 
struggle  will  be  inferred  from  the  following  advertisement  that  appeared 
in  the  "Philadelphia  Evening  Post,"  Sept,  4,  1777  :  "A  person  wants 
to  go  to  Boston,  and  would  be  glad  of  a  place  in  a  chaise  or  wagon 
going  there,  or,  if  only  half  the  way  on  that  road,  and  a  genteel  price 
will  be  given.  Any  this  will  suit  will  be  waited  on  by  leaving  a  line 
with  the  printer,"  At  this  period,  as  we  learn  from  Elkin's  "Hessians 
in  America,"  "almost  every  farmer  [on  Staten  Island  and  elsewhere]  had 
his  cabriolet  and  his  black  servant."  It  is  added,  "  These  singular  vehi- 
cles, small,  painted  red,  and  drawn  by  two  little  horses,  driven  by  a 
negro,  appeared  to  the  Hessians  new  and  strange  enough."  Baurmeis- 
ter's  "Narrative  of  the  Capture  of  New  York"  (September,  1776)  in- 
forms us  that  the  ladies  "  drive  and  ride  out  alone,  having  only  a  negro 
riding  behind  to  accompany  them." 

After  the  American  Colonies  had  organized  a  government  of  their 
own,  "in  Congress  assembled,"  resolutions  were  passed  which,  among 
other  things,  forbade  "the  importation  of  coaches,  chairs,  and  carriages 
of  all  sorts  from  England."  This  was  a  serious  blow  to  the  coach- 
building  interests  of  the  mother-country,  and  the  death  of  thai  trade  in 
America.  Even  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  rebellious  army,  after 
he  had  been  inaugurated  President,  was  forced  to  content  himself  with 
a  second-hand  coach,  once  imported  and  owned  by  Gov.  Richard  Penn, 
of  Pennsylvania.  This  coach  has  been  described  as  being  very  large 
and  heavy,  "  adding  much  to  its  stately  grandeur "  (  !  )  as  it  ran 
through  the  narrow  streets  of  the  Quaker  City,  with  its  precious  bur- 

'  We  find  the  Christian  name  of  this  gentleman  given  as  George  in  a  late  periodical. 
We  give  it  as  John  on  the  authority  of  C.  J.  Junkurth,  the  inventor  of  the  "  German- 
town  wagon,"  who  was  contemporary  in  the  same  business,  to  whom  we  are  indebted 
for  the  chief  facts  in  this  paragraph. 


412  AMERICAN  WORLD  ON  WHEELS. 

den  drawn  by  fonr  cream-colored  horses,  the  vehicle  itself  being  of 
the  same  shade,  set  oif  with  gilded  moldings  and  carvings.  Its 
strongest  attractions  were  the  relief  ornaments  on  the  side  panels, 
painted  by  Cipriani,  an  Italian  painter  of  celebrity,  visiting  this  coun- 
try, representing  in  medallions  playing  Cupids  or  naked  children. 
The  panels  may  be  seen,  among  other  relics,  in  the  Patent  Office  at 
Washington,  certitied  as  genuine  by  George  W.  P.  Custis,  and  pre- 
sented by  John  Vanden. 

Watson  tells  us  he  saw  the  original  coach-body  "in  1804-5,  in  a 
store  yard  at  New  Orleans,  where  it  lay  an  outcast  in  the  weather,  the 
result  of  a  bad  speculation  in  a  certain  Dr.  Young,  who  had  bought  it  at 
a  public  sale,  took  it  out  to  New  Orleans,  and  could  find  none  to  buy 
it,  where  all  were  content  with  plain  volantes."  It  is  naively  suggested 
that  "  a  far  better  speculation  would  have  been  to  have  taken  it  to  the 
Marquis  of  Landsdown,  or  other  admirers  of  Washington,  in  Eng- 
land." 1 

A  foot-note  to  the  later  (1850)  edition  of  the  "Annals"  informs  us 
that  "  this  old  coach  body  became  in  time  a  kind  of  outhouse,  in 
which  fowls  roosted,  and  in  the  great  battle  of  New  Orleans  (1815)  it 
stood  between  the  combatants  and  was  greatly  shot-ridden  [riddled]. 
Its  gooseneck  crane  has  been  laid  aside  for  me." 

When  John  Henry,  the  actor,  living  in  Baltimore,  being  afflicted 
with  the  gout,  was  compelled  to  keep  a  carriage  to  move  about  in,  the 
only  actor  in  America  who  did,  aware  (1786)  of  the  rather  hostile 
feeling  of  the  public  towards  players,  and  anticipating  the  inevitable 
sneer  about  an  actor's  keeping  a  carriage,  he  had  painted  on  the  doors, 
in  the  manner  of  the  coat-of-arms  of  the  European  aristocracy,  two 
prutches  in  heraldic  position,  with  the  motto,  "This  or  these."  This 
crest  he  explained  as  having  been  put  on  to  prevent  any  impertinent 
remarks  on  an  actor  keeping  his  coach,  as  the  witty  would  have  taken 
pare  to  forget  that  he  could  not  walk  in  the  earlier  days  of  our 
Republic, 

Andrew  McGowan,  of  Harlem,  New  York,  has  an  old  sledge,  dating 
as  far  back  as  1783.  On  the  back  panel  are  the  letters  "S.  B."  in 
monogram.  This  is  probably  the  oldest  thing  of  the  kind  in  America. 
It  is  so  contrived  that  by  simply  removing  the  box,  it  can  be  used 

*  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia. 


OLDEST  SLEDGE  IK  NEW   YORK. 


413 


either  for  business  or  pleasure.  When  the  sides  arc  unshipped  from 
the  runners  it  is  fitted  for  a  sledge,  and  when  not  needed  may  be  put 
aAvay  compactly  for  the  summer  season. 


S  L  F.  I  G  II     OF    17  8 


Of  the  intervening  period  between  1776  and  1786,  at  which  last  date 
the  earliest  New  York  City  Directory  was  published,  —  while  as  yet 
it  contained  but  ie^v  inhabitants,  —  we  knoAV  very  little.  A  long  and 
bloody  struggle  had  just  ended,  with  only  three  succeeding  years  of 
peace.  The  carriages  most  in  request  had  been  (^wn-carriages  only, 
with  the  making  of  which  the  coach-maker  is  seldom  concerned.  It 
appears  from  the  city  Directory  for  1786  that  there  were  only  three 
coach-makers'  shops  in  New  York.  These  were  occupied  respectively 
by  Stephen  Steel,  81  King  Street  (since  called  Pine,  and  known  in  1797 
as  No.  2)  ;  Isaac  Jones,  and  James  and  Charles  Warner,  in  Broadway, 
before  that  thoroughfiire  was  numbered.  Steel  appears  to  have  died 
in  1798,  as  Ave  find  the  following  year  that  the  Widow  Catharine  Steel 
lived  at  No.  2  Pine  Street.  One  James  Hearne  is  recorded  as  having 
a  livery  stable  at  56  Gold  Street,  the  same  year. 

Three  years  later,  in  1789,  we  find  that  Cornelius  Van  Auler  (no 
number),  in  Barclay  Street  (afterwards  No.  30)  ;  William  Collet,  4 
Wall  Street ;  Pol)ert  Manly,  Dye's  Street ;  Thomas  Parsons,  81  Broad- 
way ;  James  Kellet,  1  John  Street;  and  Charles  Warner,  6  Great 
George's  Street  (since  called  Broad  Street),  were  added  to  the  above 
number  of  coach-makers.  Also  Thomas  Barron,  at  38  Broad  Street, 
hung  out  his  sign  as  "  coach-painter  and  print-seller,"  while  his  name- 


414  AMERICAN  WOBLD   ON    WHEELS. 

sake  and  probably  brother  —  John  —  kept  a  shop  at  52  Broad  Street, 
where  "  coach  and  sign  painting  "  was  done  to  order. 

Among  "  the  wheelwrights"  of  this  period  we  find  John  Lawrence, 
corner  of  Chambers  and  Little  Chapel  Streets  ;  Adam  Fisher,  4  First 
Street  (now  Christie)  ;  John  Hallet,  121  Queen  Street ; Hall,  cor- 
ner of  Church  and  Barclay  Streets ;  John  Poalk  and  Jacob  Blanc,  in 
Greenwich  Street ;  George  Taylor,  Eagle  Street ;  and  Christian  Pullis, 
in  Chambers  Street.  James  Warner,  at  No.  6  Great  George's  Street, 
and  doubtless  brother  to  Charles,  the  coach-maker  above  mentioned ; 
both  carried  on  the  harness  and  saddlery  business  in  the  same  building. 
It  will  be  seen,  hereafter,  that  they,  for  a  brief  time,  were  in  partner- 
ship as  coach-makers  in  the  same  shop,  which  is  stated  to  be  "  near  the 
gaol,"  and  located  in  what  is  now  known  as  Broad  Street. 

After  the  time  of  which  we  write,  it  appears  that  Charles  and  John 
Warner,  of  Great  George's  Street,  "  near  the  gaol,"  kept  a  livery  sta- 
ble in  connection  with  a  carriage  manufactory,  as  did  likewise  James 
Hallet  at  No.  1,  and  John  Ross  at  No.  5  John  Street.     Besides  these, 

James  Hearne,  56  Gold  Street, Huck,  81  Wall  Street,  and  Patrick 

Shay,  5  Courtlandt  Street,  were  "Proprietors  of  Coaches."  The  stand 
for  coaches  at  this  time  was  at  the  CofFee-House,  corner  of  Wall  and 
Water  Streets,  the  legal  rates  of  fare  ''to  take-up  and  set-down  one 
passenger  within  one  mile,  one-shilling;  two  passengers,  two-shillings  ; 
to  the  two  mile  stone  and  'round  by  Cummings'  [a  tavern  then  standing 
in  Water  Street] ,  for  a  party  &c. ,  six-shillings  ;  Horn's  Tour,  eight- 
shillings  ;  Lake's  Tour,  ten-shillings,  and  for  each  hour  the  carriage 
may  be  detained  on  the  route,  two-shillings;  for  waiting  on  company 
in  the  city,  per  hour,  three-shillings  ;  to  Murray's  half  a  day,  fourteen- 
shillings ;  to  Gracey's  tavern,  sixteen-shillings ;  to  Apthorp's  tavern, 
thirty-eight  shillings ;  to  Harlaem,  one  day,  thirty-eight-shillings ;  to 
the  Twelve-Mile  Fort,  one  day,  thirty-two-shillings,  and  to  King's 
Bridge,  fifteen  miles,  one  day,  forty-shillings." 

Contemporary  with  the  above-mentioned  coach-makers  were  David 
Clark  and  Alexander  Pennman  (both  from  Scotland),  James  Simmons, 
Robert  Feeling,  Thomas  Eagle,  William  Hunter,  and  James  Kerr, 
engaged  in  the  same  business  in  Philadelphia.  From  all  we  have  been 
able  to  learn,  as  before  intimated,  coach-making  in  Philadelphia  at 
this  time  was  in  advance  of  the  same  business  carried  on  in  New  York. 
This  was  owing,  in  some  measm^e,  doubtless,  to  its  comparatively  inland 


COACH-MAKERS   OUT  FOR  A   HOLIDAY.  415 

position,  and  distance  from  the  actual  ravages  of  the  Revolutionary 
War.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  for  some  years  New  York 
City  was  in  possession  of  the  enemy,  which  circumstance  had  a  dele- 
terious effect  upon  all  classes  of  mechanical  interests. 

As  early  as  1788,  when  not  more  than  six  carriage-shops  could  be 
found  in  the  city  of  New  York,  a  coach-makers'  society  was  organized, 
somewhat  on  the  plan  of  the  one  in  London.  This  society  acted  a 
prominent  part  in  the  rather  showy  pageant  got  up  in  honor  of  the 
adoption  by  the  States  of  our  Federal  Constitution,  on  July  23  of  the 
year  named.  A  brief  account  of  the  coach-makers'  j)roceedings  may 
prove  interesting :  The  coach-makers,  in  company  with  the  harness- 
makers,  had  a  stage  drawn  by  ten  horses  at  the  head  of  their  division, 
accompanied  by  three  postilions,  dressed  in  yellow,  with  jockey  caps 
and  trimmings  of  the  same  color.  Four  workmen  were  on  the  stage, 
busily  at  Avork.  A  flag  was  stretched  across  the  stage,  representing  a 
shop  with  open  doors,  in  which  besides  was  seen  (in  paint)  a  finished 
coach,  with  other  hands  at  the  work-bench.  At  the  door  a  vessel  was 
represented  as  laying  at  the  wharf,  taking  on  board  carriages  for  expor- 
tation ;  over  the  shop  the  Union  flag ;  over  the  ship  the  nine  Federal 
members  from  this  country  ;  in  the  center,  the  coach  and  coach-harness 
makers'  arms  :  on  a  blue  field  three  open  coaches,  supported  by  Liberty 
on  one  side,  holding  in  her  left  hand  the  cap  of  Liberty  ;  on  the  other 
side  by  Peace,  holding  in  her  right  hand  the  horn  of  plenty ;  Fame 
blowing  her  trumpet  over  their  heads  ;  motto,  "  The  Federal  Star  shall 
guide  our  Car."  A  green  monument  supported  by  ten  pillars,  with  a 
Union  in  the  center ;  crest  on  the  top  of  the  arms,  and  an  eagle  soar- 
ing from  a  globe.  In  addition  to  the  above,  the  saddlers,  harness  and 
whip  makers  carried  in  a  separate  department  an  emblematic  figure  of 
their  iDrofession,  —  a  horse  decked  out  with  an  elegant  saddle  and  har- 
ness, with  embroidered  tassel,  led  by  a  groom  dressed  in  character, 
attended  by  two  black  boys,  with  a  long  retinue  of  bosses  and  journey- 
men bringing  up  the  rear.  Probably  the  display  on  this  occasion  has 
never  since  been  equaled  by  the  craft. 

The  same  year  Ezra  Rice,  of  Meriden,  Mass.,  is  said  to  have  im- 
ported (?)  a  wagon  for  his  own  use,  which  was  of  very  rude  construc- 
tion, being  simply  a  square  box  placed  on  four  wheels  without 
springs,  and  drawn  by  four  horses,  with  ropes  for  traces  and  cords  for 
guiding-lines.     Yet  notwithstanding  these  drawbacks,  the  establish- 


416 


AMEBICAN  WORLD   01^   WHEELS. 


mcnt  was  jit  this  early  day  in  our  history  considered  a  very  splendid 
turnout !  Previous  to  this  only  three  chaises,  on  two  Avheels,  had 
ever  been  owned  in  the  town,  and  these  were  of  rude  construction  and 
very  unsightly  appearance. 

Probably  the  only  old  coach  of  American  manufticture  in  existence 
to-day  is  the  one  still  preserved  in  a  good  state,  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, falsely  represented  as  having  belonged  to  our  Gen.  George 


The    Powell    Coach. 

Washington  at  one  time,  and  palmed  off  as  such  on  more  than  one 
public  occasion  since  in  the  city  of  New  York,  backed  by  the  entire 
press  !  We  have  the  strongest  reasons  for  believing  that  Washington 
never  owned  this  coach,  and  never  even  rode  in  it ;  and  yet  the  managers 
of  some  Sanitary  Fairs  have  charged  their  dupes  a  fee  for  the  privilege 
of  sitting  a  few  moments  on  the  cushions  where  the  illustrious  Wash- 
ington once  did  —  not. 

We  have  already  shown  what  became  of  Washington's  imported 
coach.  It  now  remains  to  give  the  history  of  the  one  here  engraved 
from  a  photograph,  taken  expressly  for  this  volume. ^  Our  authority 
is  Mr.  Charles  Perrie,  an  aged  carriage-maker  of  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia. He  tells  us,  and  is  indorsed  by  others,  that  "this  coach  was 
built  in  1790,  by  David  Clark,"  who,  as  Ave  have  seen,  Avas  a  Scotch- 
man, and  had  a  shop  on  Sixth,  between  Chestnut  and  Market  Streets, 
Philadelphia,  "  to  the  order  of  Samuel  Powell,  of  that  city.  After  his 
death  it  became  the  property  of  his  widow,  Avho  retained  it  until  she 


'  This  photograph  was  taken  for  us  in  Eebruary,  1872. 
defect  iu  taking,  look  very  much  like  mules. 


The  horses,   from  some 


CONGEESSIONAL   TAX  OIT  CAEltlAGES.  417 

died,  when  it  fell  into  the  liands  of  Col.  John  Hare  Powell,  a  nephew 
of  Mrs.  Samuel  Powell."  It  cost,  as  near  as  our  informant  recollected, 
about  $800,  —  by  the  way,  a  very  extravagant  price  in  those  days  for  a 
carriage.  But  as  this  was  of  home  manufacture,  and  a  very  fine  estab- 
lishment withal,  it  was  not  considered  too  much.  For  a  long  time  this 
carriage,' "as  a  willful  mistake,"  was  exhibited  as  Washington's  in 
Wood's  Museum.  At  a  later  period  it  "  ornamented  "  the  repository 
of  William  Dunlap,  who  likewise  gave  us  the  history  of  this  coach. i 
It  has  since  been  disposed  of  to  a  Mr.  Wharton. 

Congress,  looking  upon  carriages  as  an  article  of  luxury,  imposed  a 
tax  upon  them  in  1794.  They  numbered  in  Philadelphia,  at  the  time, 
thirty-three  coaches,  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  coachees,  thirty-five 
chariots,  twenty-two  phaetons,  eighty  light  wagons,  and  five  hundred 
and  twenty  chairs  and  sulkies,  showing  that  in  about  twenty  years  they 
had  greatly  increased. ^ 

A  team  of  horses  to  a  carriage  in  those  days  might  average  thirty 
or  forty  miles  a  day,  taking  about  two  weeks  to  go  from  New  York  to 
Pittsburgh,  three  to  Columbus,  four  to  Cincinnati,  or  six  to  Chicago  or 


'  It  is  really  melancholy  to  see  how  much  fiction  there  is  palmed  off  upon  the  world 
as  sober  history,  of  which  the  above  is  only  one  example.  In  the  Historical  Magazine 
we  are  told  that  "the  flrst  carriage  built  in  America  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  a 
man  named  White,  in  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  for  a  private  gentleman  in  Boston, 
in  1805,"  which  was  fifteen  years  after  PowelFs  coach  was  made.  "This  (White's) 
was  copied  from  a  kind  of  English  chariot,  made  much  lighter  and  said  to  have  been 
creditable  to  the  builder.  It  was,  however,  found  to  be  much  cheaper  to  order  them 
from  Europe,  on  account  of  the  high  price  in  material  and  excessive  cost  of  wages.  A 
plain  kind  of  wagon,  with  the  simplest  description  of  finish  and  trimmings,  was  made 
in  the  cities  of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia."  The  most  charitable  construc- 
tion to  be  found  for  the  writer's  statement  is  in  the  supposition  that  he  confounds  the 
fact  that  the  first  carriage  was  built  in  Massachusetts  in  1805,  with  his  belief  thtit  it  was 
the  first  built  iu  America.     Our  investigations  ma}"  set  him  right  on  this  subject. 

"  Another  account  says  that  the  record  of  duties  on  ploasui'e-carriages  made  the  full 
return  five  hundred  and  twenty  chairs,  thirty-three  sulkies,  eighty  light  wagons,  one 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  coachees,  twenty-two  phaetons,  thirty-five  chariots,  and 
thirty-three  coaches ;  total,  three  hundred  and  seven  four-wheeled  carriages.  In  1801, 
when  the  tax  ceased,  there  were,  exclusive  of  the  county,  three  hundred  and  six  four- 
wheeled  chaises.  At  present  (1811)  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  their  being  much  im- 
proved. The  increase  of  hacks  also  would  greatly  swell  the  number.  —  Meabs's  Pic- 
tare  of  Philadelphia. 

According  to  Coxe's  View  of  the  United  States,  Winchester,  Virginia,  contained  one 
or  two  coach-makers,  five  or  six  blacksmiths,  and  three  or  four  wheelwrights  at  this 
time. 

27 


418  AMEBIC AI^  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

Springfield,  Illinois.  The  stage-coach  which,  with  relays  of  horses, 
made  one  hundred  miles  a  day,  did  wonders  ;  and  the  famous  old  Penn- 
sylvania wagons,  drawn  by  six  or  eight  huge  horses,  with  a  ton  or  there- 
abouts to  each  horse,  were  doing  marvelously  well  to  jog,  snail-like, 
over  from  eight  to  fifteen  miles  a  day  on  the  average.  These  teams 
usually  occupied  a  month  or  six  weeks  in  conveying  a  load  of  merchan- 
dise from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh  or  Wheeling.  It  is  recorded  that 
two  emigrants  from  Canaan  Four-Corners,  a  place  a  little  east  of  Albany, 
New  York,  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  at  this  period  (1798),  took  ninety-two 
days  to  perform  the  journey.  The  road  from  Fort  Schuyler  (Utica, 
New  York)  to  the  Genesee,  which  in  1797  was  little  better  than  an  Indian 
path,  is  stated  by  Capt.  Williamson  as  being  in  1799  so  far  improved 
that  a  stage  started  from  Fort  Schuyler  in  September,  to  arrive  at 
Geneva  on  the  third  day,  with  four  passengers.  In  the  winter  of  1797 
two  stages  ran  from  Geneva  to  Canandaigua,  weekly,  l)ut  it  was  eigh- 
teen years  before  a  stage,  carrying  the  mails  between  Canandaigua  and 
Rochester,  a  distance  of  twenty-eight  miles,  ran  as  often  as  twice  a 
week.  "  Only  nineteen  years  preceding  our  journey,"  says  one  who 
traveled  over  the  route  in  1828,  "a  friend  of  ours,  who  had  gone  in  the 
first  gig  that  had  reached  Niagara,  and  although  it  was  drawn  by  two 
horses  tandem,  he  was  a  whole  day  in  going  over  a  route  of  sixteen 
miles  much  filled  with  ' corduroy  logs.'"  In  June,  1800,  one  Uriah 
Tracy,  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  was  summoned  to  Washington,  and 
received  an  appointment  as  commissioner,  to  examine  into  the  actual 
state  of  the  Indian  trading-houses  at  the  Northwest.  His  accounts 
have  been  preserved,  and  the  following  items  show  the  time  and  cost 
of  the  journey  between  New  York  and  Washington  then:  June  20.  — 
Stage  fare  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  $5  ;  expenses  on  the  road 
to  Philadelphia,  $3.75  ;  expenses  in  Philadelphia,  $7.25.  June  22.  — 
Stage  fare  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore,  $8  ;  expenses  on  the  road 
to  Baltimore,  —  expenses  at  Baltimore,  $4. 12  J.  June  25.  —  Stage  fare 
from  Baltimore  to  Washington,  $3.50  ;  expenses  on  the  road  to  Wash- 
ington, $2.25  ;  or  $33.87^  for  expenses  on  a  journey  which  now  costs 
$8.50,  and  instead  of  five  is  easily  performed  in  a  day. 

The  reader  will  understand  from  the  foregoing  facts,  gathered  from 
authentic  sources,  that  to  make  a  journey  of  fifty  miles  was  a  matter 
of  no  little  difiiculty.  Those  who  were  able  to  keep  their  own  private 
conveyance  were  exceedingly  glad  if  they  could  come  across  "a  cheer," 


The  Chair  of  1790. 


amebig'an  one-horse  chair.  419 

as  they  were  then  called,  which  they  might  purchase.  These  vehicles 
"  of  the  period,"  which  Ave  have  endeavored  to  exhibit,  were  the 
only  ones  seen  in  the  rural  districts,  the  costs  of  which  in  those  days 
was  no  inconsiderable 
sum.  They  were  all 
hung  upon  springs 
made  of  wood  gener- 
ally, with  rude  bow 
or  standing-tops  of 
round  iron,  hung 
around  with  painted 
cloth  curtains.  The 
linings  and  cushions, 
stuffed  with  "swing-, 
ling  tow,"  sometimes 
salt  hay,  were  in  those  primitive  times  of  simplicity  and  innocence 
deemed  good  enough  for  any  American  sovereign,  and  very  fortunate 
was  he  who  could  get  even  a  shoi-t  ride  in  one  !  The  poet  Holmes  has 
immortalized  the  "one-horse  shay"  in  a  lengthy  poem,  from  which  we 
have  taken  the  motto  for  this  chapter. 

In  1789  it  is  stated  there  were  only  7,904  inhabitants  in  New  York 
City.  About  this  time  Daniel  Eoss  went  from  New  York  and  com- 
menced the  coach-making  business  in  Newark,  New  Jersey,  where  he 
built  a  carriage  for  the  Kearney  ftimily.  Previous  to  this,  nothing  but 
the  old-fashioned  chairs,  hung  upon  wooden  springs,  had  ever  been  made 
there.  Ross's  carriage,  although  made  in  the  plainest  manner,  is  said 
to  have  been  "  substantial  in  all  its  parts."  Soon  after  this  experiment, 
an  English  coach  was  brought  to  Newark  by  the  Kemble  family,  having 
been  purchased  in  Philadelphia.  This  coach  excited  a  great  deal  of 
curiosity,  and  it  is  stated  that  Robert  B.  Caniield,  an  old  carriage- 
maker,  recently  deceased,  but  who  at  the  time  had  just  commenced  busi- 
ness, and  only  made  Avork  of  the  simplest  pretensions,  took  patterns 
of  its  several  parts,  examined  it  well,  and  determined  to  imitate  it  as 
Avell  as  he  could.  Being  without  the  tools  necessary  to  make  some 
parts  of  the  carriage,  Mr.  Canfield  started  on  foot  for  New  York  in  the 
morning,  returning  to  Newark  in  the  evening  with  the  tools  wanted. 
He  immediately  set  himself  to  work,  and  soon  produced  a  coach  as 
nearly  like  the  English  prototype  as  possible.     Mr.  Canfield  afterwards 


420  AMEBIC  AN  WORLD  ON   WHEELS. 

took  it  to  New  York,  and  offered  it  for  sale  as  his  own  manufacture. 
This  story  the  "Yorkers"  would  not  credit,  as  they  thought  a  carriage 
of  such  skillful  workmanship  could  not  have  been  made  in  a  country 
shop.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  selling  it  finally,  and  the  proceeds 
supplied  him  with  his  first  capital  for  the  extensive  business  he  after- 
wards carried  on.  This  year  we  find  that  the  afterwards  distinguished 
coach-maker,  Abram  Quick,  was  merely  a  journeyman  painter,  resid- 
ing in  Cross  Street.  Three  years  after  he  lived  at  No.  6  Fair  Street. 
It  is  not  until  1816  that  he  figures  as  a  coach-maker  in  the  city  Direc- 
tory, from  which  he  retired  in  1826.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  speak 
of  him  again. 

In  1798  Joseph  Powell,  73  Broad  Street;  Thomas  Parsells,  145 
Broadway;  Cornelius  Van  Allen  (Van  Auler?),  30  Barclay  Street, 
were  the  names  of  the  coach-makers  then  inljusiness.  Charles  Warner, 
at  No.  7,  and  James,  his  brother,  at  No.  9  Barclay  Street  (both  removed 
from  No.  6  Great  George's  Street) ,  having  dissolved,  each  set  up  a  har- 
ness-making shop  on  his  own  account.  A.  Peel  was  coach  and  chair 
ivaker  at  No.  26  Broad  Street.  Up  to  this  time  very  little  had  been 
done  in  the  manufacturing  of  carriages.  Those  chiefly  made  were 
wooden  spring  chairs  or  chaises,  a  rude  kind  of  wagon,  and  jobbing. 
The  finer  kinds  ot  carriages,  such  as  they  were,  were  still  nearly  all 
imported  from  Europe. 

About  1810  the  shops  in  which,  in  some  shape,  carriage-making  was 
done,  amounted  to  twenty-eight.  The  proprietors  were  William  Ross, 
208  Broadway,  corner  of  Fulton  Street ;  Burtis  &  Woodward,  280 
Broadway,  corner  of  Chambers  Street ;  John  Higin,  368  Broadway ; 
Alexander  C.  Wiley,  392  and  482  Broadway ;  Fred.  Bomiler,  Broad- 
way, near  Spring  Street;  John  Bloodgood,  Nos.  5,  7,  and  9  John 
Street ;  James  and  John  Warner,  still  each  at  the  old  places  in  Barclay 
Street;  Berrian  &  Cullum,  23  Chamber  Street;  Henry  Stibbs,  34 
Vesey  Street ;  Nathaniel  Jeroleman,  90  Reed  Street ;  Abram  Quick, 
"coach  painter,"  62  New  Street;  Daniel  Fraser,  39  Frankfort  Street; 
Jacob  Crissy,  32  Robinson  Street ;  George  Griffing,  40  Chapel  Street ; 
Griffith  Griffith,  437  Pearl  Street;  James  Brower,  11  Partition  Street; 
Cornelius  Van  Allen  (whose  name  is  variously  printed) ,  56  Leonard 
Street ;  Thomas  Thorne  and  Robert  Hardy,  both  at  57  Walker  Street ; 
Jacob  Peterson,  "coach-maker  and  wheelwright,"  20  Mott  Street; 
John  Woodward,  40  White  Street;  Ozeas  Smith,  12  Batavia  Lane; 


CARRIAGE-MAKING  IN  ALBANY.  421 

James  Simpson,  in  Bancker,  now  Madison  Street ;  Thomas  Lincoln,  13 
Magazine  Street ;  Samuel  Hallet  and  Henry  Hamilton,  in  the  Bowery^ 
near  North,  since  called  Houston  Street.  These  are  all  called  coach- 
makers,  but  scarcely  deserved  the  name.  Such  have  been  the  changes 
since,  that  not  one  of  the  places  named  is  now  o^jcupied  for  the  coach- 
making  business.  Virginia  and  a  portion  of  Massachusetts  this  year 
reported  as  built  2,413  vehicles  of  all  kinds,  the  revenue  in  seven 
States  amounting  to  $1,449,849. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  the  third  President  of  the  United  States,  at  the 
close  of  his  term  of  office,  had  a  carriage  built  after  a  design  of  his  own, 
the  entire  work  of  which,  except  the  plating,  was  done  by  his  own 
workmen.  In  this  carriage,  we  are  told,  he  drove  four  horses,  with  d. 
great  show  of  splendor,  which,  considering  his  character,  attracted 
much  notice.  To  the  horses  he  gave  the  names  of  Washington,  Well- 
ington, Eagle,  etc.,  ordering  that  they  be  driven  in  an  unusual  man- 
ner, without  reins,  two  servants  on  horseback  guiding  each  a  pair. 

Carriage-making  was  established  in  Albany  early  in  the  present  cen- 
tury, in  a  small  way.  When  our  informant,  James  Goold,  Esq.,  now 
over  seventy  years  of  age,  settled  there  in  1813,  he  found  in  business 
Joseph  Thinkell,  Robinson  &  Vanderbilt,  and  John  Epps.  Epps 
employed  about  a  dozen  hands,  and  Robinson  &  Vanderbilt  twelve  or 
fifteen.  At  the  time  when  Mr.  Goold  began  business  (which  he  did 
with  only  a  boy  assistant),  the  work  chiefly  done  was  l)uilding  long- 
bodied  wagons  hung  on  elliptic  springy  made  of  wood,  and  occasionally 
a  hack  for  carrying  passengers  between  that  place  and  the  neighboring 
towns,  then  bordered  by  wilderness.' 

In  those  days  the  chief  mode  of  private  conveyance  among  the 
rustics  was  by  the  chaise  already  described,  or  a  rude  sort  of  wagon, 
of  which  we  give  an  engraving  on  next  page.  As  will  be  observed, 
the  body  was  set  on  bolsters,  the  springs  being  under  a  sort  of  chair- 
seat,  made  of  wood,  in  the  shape  of  an  elongated  S,  attached  to  a  frame 
in  the  bottom  of  the  wagon.     This  could  be  put  in  or  taken  out  when 

1  The  first  manufacturer  of  coach-springs  in  New  York  was  one  Williams,  from 
England,  who  worked  in  the  same  shop  witli  the  celebrated  Grant  Thorburn.  He  is 
said  to  have  prospered  and  made  money  until  he  became  an  infidel  and  attached  him- 
self to  Tom  Paine's  party,  after  which  he  became  a  pauper,  and  died  in  the  almshouse, 
an  outcast.  Previous  to  this,  and  for  some  years  afterwards,  they  were  imported  into 
this  country  from  England,  chiefly  of  Slater's  make,  w:hose  trade-mark  was  three 
crowns. 


Country  Pleasur 


422  AMEBICAJSr  WORLD   OW  WHEELS. 

desirable,  and  then  the  wagon  was  useful  for  business  purposes,  in  an 
age  when  business  was  more  important  than  pleasure-taking,  i     To 

make  one  of  these  seats,  to  do 
which  an  apprentice  was  allowed 
l)ut  a  single  day,  was  quite  a  diffi- 
cult task  to  perform,  since,  as  in 
chair-making,  much  of  it  was  done 
"by  the  eye,"  and  all  by  hand. 

The  same  year  in  which  Mr. 
Goold  settled  in  Albany,  Lewis 
Downing,  then  a  young  man  of 
twenty-one  years,  went  from  Lexington,  Mass.,  and  opened  a  wheelwright 
shop  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  with  a  capital  of  only  a  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars,  seventy-five  of  which  was  invested  in  tools.  The  work  made 
was  the  common  wagon,  then  called  "buggies,"  the  body  of  which  was 
bolted  to  the  hind  axle,  as  we  have  previously  seen,  and  then  sold  for 
sixty  dollars,  a  good  price  for  that  day.  The  first  year  he  worked 
alone,  and  as  he  did  not  have  any  blacksmith,  he  usually  took  the 
wood-work  of  two  Avagons  at  a  time  to  the  New  Hampshire  state-prison 
to  be  ironed,  he  doing  the  painting  himself.  The  first  wagon  finished 
was  sold  to  Dr.  Samuel  Morrill,  of  Concord. 

Sleighs  were  very  early  constructed  in  America,  the  severe  winters 
formerly  encountered  encouraging  their  use.  A  correct  representation 
of  those  in  flishion  sixty  years  ago  may  be  seen  in  the  next  figure, 
considered  by  our  grandmothers  good  enough  for  them  to  ride  in  while 
looking  out  for  a  husband  !  Many  interesting  episodes  have  been  pro- 
mulgated in  connection  with  these  old  sleighs,  and  no  small  amount 
of  courting  has  been  accomplished  through  their  agency,  especially  in 
the  New  England  States,  where  it  was  the  custom,  when  the  sleighing 
became  favorable,  to  make  up  a  party,  chiefly  young  people  of  both 
sexes,  for  a  drive  to  some  distant  village,  where  a  good  supper  was 

'  About  this  time  steam  power  was  first  used  in  ferrying  passengers,  etc.,  from  New- 
York  City  to  Brooklyn  in  place  of  horse-strengtli.  The  Columbian  of  May  14, 181-1,  thus 
notices  "the  Nassau,  the  new  steamboat  belonging  to  Messrs.  Crotting  &  Co.,  which 
commenced  running  from  Beekman  Slip  to  the  lower  ferry  at  Brooklyn  a  few  days  ago, 
[and]  carried  in  one  of  her  first  trips  Bid  (another  counted  550)  passengers,  one  wagon 
and  a  pair  of  horses,  two  horses  and  chairs,  and  one  single  horse.  She  has  made  a 
trip  in  four  minutes,  and  generally  takes  from  four  to  eight,  and  has  crossed  the  river 
forty  times  in  one  day." 


SLEIGHS  AND   THE   GEBMANTOWN. 


423 


ordered,    and    discussed   with   a   sharpened    appetite.      Later  in   the 

evening    the     parties    drove 

home,  to  dream  througli  the 

night  about  the  incidents  of 

the  sleigh-ride,  often  with  a 

dart  from  Cupid's  bow  trans- 

jfixed  in  the  heart. 

Tlie  next  eno-ravinof  is  from 
the   photograph    of   a    sleigh 
built  by  James  Goold,  Esq., 
of  Albany,  in  1816,  which  is 
still  used  by  its  present  own- 
er,   C.    C.    Bradley,    of   Syra-  ^xui.y  American  sleigh. 1 
cuse,  N.  y.     After  the  service  of  half  a  century  it  still  gives  much 
promise   of  indefinite  wear.      For  over  fifty  years,   Albany  sleighs, 
made  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Goold,   have  borne  an  enviable 

reputation  both  at  home 
and  abroad,  always  com- 
manding the  highest  price 
in  the  market. 

At  this  period  (181G) 
C.  J.  Junkurth,  at  Ger- 
mantown,   Pennsylvania, 
built  a  carriage  for  James 
albant  Sleigh.  Duval,  of  the  samc  placc, 

which,  on  account  of  its  novelty,  was  called  the  Germantown,  in  com- 
pliment to  the  place,  then  a  small  settlement  located  seven  miles  north- 
west of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  ;  but  more  of  this  hereafter. 

The  first  lino  of  mail  stages  between  Boston  and  New  York  was  run 
by  Lewis  Pease  in  1784.  This  same  gentleman  is  said  to  have  pro- 
jected the  first  turnpike  road  in  New  England.  Before  this  the  mails 
Went  only  once  in  a  fortnight  between  the  two  cities,  in  a  pair  of  sad- 
dle-basfs,  on  the  back  of  a  horse.     It  was  not  until  1817  that  stages 


'  The  following  is  extracted  from  a  letter  to  the  author  from  Joel  Mnnsell,  Esq.,  of 
Albany,  Jan.  27,  1870:  "I  remember  this  sleigh  in  my  boyhood  in  the  Connecticut 
Valley  fifty  years  ago.  Possibly  it  might  have  been  fifty  years  old  then,  or  even  more, 
for  in  those  days  the  world  moved  slow  and  the  fashions  moved  slower.  Mr.  Wemple 
remembers  them  sixty  years,  and  knows  nothing  beyond." 


424 


AMERICAN   WORLD   Olf  WHEELS. 


came  into  general  use,  under  the  presidency  of  Munroe.  Originally  a 
European  institution,  many  improvements  were  added  to  them  in  this 
country.  The  attachment  of  rack  and  boot,  made  to  swing  with  the 
body,  originated  in  Salem,  Massachusetts.  An  experiment  of  using 
the  English  post-coach  body  on  platform  springs,  in  opposition  to  the 
American  improvement,  was  tried  in  Baltimore  at  about  the  same  time, 
unsuccessfully.  Mr.  Butterfield,  whose  name  has  since  been  known  in 
connection  with  some  of  the  most  successful  enterprises  of  the  day, 
used  to  run  post-coaches  in  connection  with  the  Hudson  River  steam- 
boats from  Albany  to  Ballstown  and  Saratoga,  which  were  usually 
crowded  with  passengers,  previous  to  the  building  of  the  New  York 
Central  Railroad,  which  ruined  the  business. 


American   Stage-coach,    1830. 

At  one  time  the  manufacture  of  these  vehicles  was  extensively  car- 
ried on  in  Albany,  but  was  subsequently  monopolized  by  the  Trojans, 
at  the  head  of  whom  stood  conspicuously  Orsamus  Eaton.  Mr.  Chap- 
man, at  Northampton,  and  Jason  Clapp,  at  Pittsfield,  both  in  Massa- 
chusetts, were  early  accounted  enterprising  builders  of  these  coaches, 
the  costs  of  Avhich  varied  from  $450  to  $500. 

Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  informs  us  that  the  stage-drivers  of  former  days 
"  lived  merry  liut  short  lives.  The  exceptions  were  in  fiivor  of  those 
who,  after  a  few  years'  experience,  married  some  reputal)lo  farmer's 
daughter  on  their  route,  and  changed  their  occupation  from  stagc- 
drivino;  to  farminof.  .  •  .  It  is  but  a  few  weeks  since  I  saw  in  the 
papers  an  announcement  of  the  death  somewhere  in  Tompkins  County 
of  Phineas  Mapes,  aged   eighty   years.     Phin.    Mapes,  a   rollicking 


STAGE-COACHES  AND    SOBROWFUL    DRIVERS.  425 

stage-driver  at  Catskill,  is  one  of  my  very  earliest  remembrances.  In 
1803  or  1804,  a  stage  with  four  or  five  horses  was  an  institution,  at 
least  in  the  admiring  eyes  of  the  boys.  I  remember  with  what  a  flour- 
ish Mapes  used  to  dash  up  to  the  post-office  door,  and  while  Dr. 
Crosswell  was  assorting  the  mails,  how  gracefully  and  gently  he  would 
throw  his  long  whip-lash  over  the  backs  of  the  leaders,  and  how,  by 
the  responsive  action  of  the  forefeet,  nostrils,  and  ears,  they  would 
show  how  well  they  understood  that  he  meant  it  playfully.  How  well, 
too,  I  remember  when  in  1810  or  1811  I  renewed  my  acquaintance  with 
this  driver  at  Skaneateles,  between  which  place  and  Onondaga  Hollow 
he  was  blowing  his  horn  and  cracking  his  jokes,  quite  as  popular  here 
as  he  had  been  at  Catskill.  The  oldest  inhabitants  of  Catskill  and 
Skaneateles,  as  well  as  the  few  survivors  who  rode  in  stages  upon  the 
great  Genesee  turnpike,  sixty  years  ago,  will  remember  Phin.  Mapes 
pleasantly,  from  whom,  in  his  best  days,  Dickens  might  have  found  'a 
jolly  original  for  Mark  Tapley." 

As  before  intimated,  the  introduction  of  railroads  is  fast  driving  the 
post-coaches,  once  such  favorites  with  the  public,  out  of  the  country. 
Recently  a  mournful  company  of  old  stage-drivers,  proprietors,  and 
agents,  who  thirty  years  ago,  on  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  first 
commenced  to  lay  aside  the  whip  and  horn,  to  make  room  for  the  bell 
and  whistle,  had  an  old-fashioned  stage  supper  in  Springfield,  to  recount 
over  their  former  adventures,  and  weep  over  the  loss  of  their  occupa- 
tion. These,  as  a  class,  were  highly  social  individuals,  now  driven 
oft*  the  road  to  earn  a  precarious  living  by  marrying  "vidders,"  and 
tending  pikes  and  switches." 

The  coach-makers  still  in  business  in  New  York,  in  1820,  mentioned 
in  our  previous  catalogue,  were  Cornelius  P.  Borrian,  23  Chaml)er 
Street ;  James  Brower,  Suffolk,  near  Rivington  Street ;  George  Grift"- 
ing,  40  Chapel  Street ;  Nathaniel  Jeroleman,  50  Leonard,  near  Chapel 
Street ;  Abram  Quick,  52  and  54  Broad  Street,  and  William  Ross,  who 
had  removed  from  208  to  405  Broadway.  A  nest  of  Rosses  had  now 
got  into  the  business,  namely,  William  and  John  E.  Ross,  138  and  140 
Fulton  Street,  previously  known  as  Fair  Street ;  William  S.  Ross,  146 
Fulton  Street,  and  James  Ross,  409  Broadway.  Cornelius  Vanaullen 
had  not  only  changed  the  orthography  of  the  name,  but  represented 
the  family  in  business  at  54  and  88  Leonard  Street.  The  following 
opposition  shops  had  sprung  up  since  1810:  Nicholas  Lawrence,  412 


426  AMEBIC  AN  WORLD  ON    WHEELS. 

Broadway;  E.  P.  Lawrence,  5,  7,  and  9  John  Street  (afterwards 
Bloodgood  &  Lawrence)  ;  Daniel  Stevens,  407  Broadway;  Oliver  & 
Parker,  348  Broadway ;  Milne  Parker,  coach-maker  and  repository, 
Broadway,  near  Spring  Street.  This  would  appear  to  be  the  first 
repository  established  in  New  York.  Mr.  Parker  left  the  city  in  1827, 
and  went  to  Yorkville,  then  a  village  adjacent,  and  a  few  miles  out  of 
town,  where  he  continued  in  business  one  year ;  Robert  G.  Hardie,  14 
New  Street ;  William  Chapman,  Church,  corner  of  Leonard ;  Gilbert 
Bowne,  26  Thomas  Street ;  Peter  McNeil,  164  Chamber  Street ;  Wil- 
liam Mitchell,  Collect,  corner  Anthony ;  John  Eiker,  Lispenard,  near 
Church  ;  William  C.  Smith,  Hester,  near  Broadway  ;  John  Woodward, 
Jr.,  127  Orange  Street;  John  Foster,  33  Jay  Street;  James  Brady, 
253  Greenwich  Street;  Thomas  Charters,  26  Charlton,  near  Hudson; 
A.  Brown,  Laurens,  near  Prince  ;  William  H.  Pinckney,  154,  and  Wil- 
liam Slack,  214  Bowery ;  James  Cleland,  Thompson,  near  Spring;  and 
James  Coe,  one  of  that  name  at  17  Mulberry,  and  another  at  15 
Bancker  (Madison)  Street.  Subsequent  to  this  (in  1827)  Cornelius 
P.  Berrian  had  taken  possession  of  No.  7  John  Street,  previously 
occupied  by  Bloodgood  cS;  Lawrence.  In  1816  A.  Quick  had  removed 
to  Broad  Street  from  16  Marketfield  Street.  Li  1827  James  Brewster, 
of  New  Haven,  bought  out  Quick's  establishment,  and  took  into  part- 
nership Mr.  John  R.  Lawrence. 

The  following  story,  which  appears  to  have  created  much  interest 
among  the  craft  some  time  between  the  years  1820  and  1825  (some 
say  in  1822),  we  have  often  heard  related  by  the  older  members. 
Milne  Parker,  whose  self-esteem  was  largely  developed  in  his  conduct, 
challenged  the  world,  through  the  public  press,  to  compete  with  him 
in  building  a  gig,  as  chaises  under  a  modified  form  were  then  desig- 
nated. Abram  Quick,  nothing  daunted,  quickly  accepted  the  chal- 
lenge, stipulating  that  the  best  maker  should  have  the  two,  —  Parker's 
original  offer,  —  and  in  addition  thereto  the  loser  should  forfeit  $500, 
and  give  a  suit  of  clothes  to  each  of  the  referees.  Both  vehicles  were 
to  be  made  without  paint,  putty,  or  trimming.  Parker  employed 
Othneal  Smith  to  make  his  gig  body,  and  Philip  Vermilyea  to  do  the 

iron-work.     Quick's  was  made  by  James  Brady,  and  ironed  by 

Davis.  When  both  were  ready,  the  jury  of  carriage-makers  —  Robert 
Hardy,  Cor.  P.  Berrian,  and  Richard  P.  Lawrence  —  decided,  after 
due  inspection,  that  the  gig  made  in  Quick's  shop  was  the  best.     This 


JENNY  LIND'S    SPANISH   VOL  ANTE.  427 

Parker  was  loath  to  believe,  and  showed  considcral)le  reluctance  in 
parting  with  his  gig.  In  this  emergency  our  informant,  Mr.  John  E. 
Lawrence,  was  sent  for  the  vehicle,  and  after  much  parley  he  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  a  promise  from  Parker  that  he  would  deliver  it  to 
the  winner  when  it  should  be  completed  in  the  wood  and  iron  work, 
which  promise  was  fulfilled  a  few  days  afterwards. 

Milne  Parker,  the  loser  of  the  gig,  seems  to  have  turned  his  chief 
attention  to  the  manufacture  of  volantes  for  the  Cuban  and  Mexican 
markets,  this  kind  of  carriage  being  a  great  fjivorite  with  the  Spanish 
ladies  from  that  day  to  this.  Philip  Yermilyea,  who  appears  to  have 
been  Parker's  blacksmith  in  general,  and  a  great  blower ^  on  a  certain 
occasion  headed  a  public  procession  through  the  streets  of  the  city, 
with  the  express  object  in  view  of  showing  off  Parker's  volantes  and 


PANISH    VOLANTE. 


"astonishing  the  natives."  At  every  convenient  point  on  the  march 
"Phil."  would  stop  the  party  in  the  interest  of  Parker,  and  say  to  the 
gaping  crowd,  "  Gentlemen,  those  fine  specimens  of  work  were  made 
at  Mr.  Parker's  shop  in  Broadway,  not  in  Fulton  Street  by  the  Eosses," 
between  whom  and  Parker  a  rivalry  in  business  appears  to  have 
existed.  Phil,  probably  "kept  mum"  concerning  the  gig  he  ironed 
off,  and  which  Parker  found  so  bad  that  Jieivas  obliged  to  give  it  away  I 
At  the  present  time  Cuba  is  supplied  with  volantes  from  France  and 
England. 

Our  illustration  represents  a  volante  built  for  Jenny  Lind  when  she 
visited  Havana  in  1850.  The  dimensions  from  actual  measurement 
are :  width  on  the  seat,  3  ft.  2  in.  ;  the  wheels,  placed  in  the  rear, 
6   ft.    2   in.   high;    hub,    8^   in.   in  diameter;    tracking,  4  ft.   11  in. 


428  A  ME  BIG  AW  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 

Dressed  in  the  gaudiest  of  apparel,  although  bonnetless,  the  dark-eyed 
Creoles  of  Cuba  make  the  tour  of  the  promenades  in  these  volantes 
with  the  greatest  ease.  Notwithstanding  the  clumsy  make-up,  devoid 
of  springs,  we  are  told  by  those  who  have  tried  them  that  these 
volantes  make  nothing  of  deep  ruts  and  other  obstacles  as  they  dash 
along  the  road,  imparting  the  most  pleasant  sensation  to  its  occupants, 
often  three  in  number.  Some  of  these  vehicles  are  very  costly,  as 
high  as  $1,500. 

The  postilion  (calisero) ,  in  our  picture  dismounted,  always  rides 
when  the  horse  is  on  the  move,  dressed  in  a  scarlet  jacket,  with  high 
jack-boots  set  off  with  silver  buckles  at  the  knee,  spurs  to  his  heels, 
and  a  showy  cockade  in  his  hat.  His  services  relieve  the  passeagers 
of  all  care  and  greatly  promote  their  comfort. 

About  the  period  of  which  we  are  writing,  A.  Quick,  Bloodgood  & 
Lawrence,  William  and  John  E.  Eoss,^  C.  P.  Berrian,  and  John  Riker, 
who  were  the  chief  manufacturers,  and  consequently  the  greatest  suf- 
ferers from  the  introduction  of  "  country  work,"  undertook  to  get  a 
law  passed  by  the  Common  Council  preventing  the  rural  carriage- 
makers  from  offering  their  wares  for  sale  in  the  streets,  which  they 
were  accustomed  to  do  in  front  of  Trinity  Church,  on  Broadway,  and 
the  Tontine  Coffee  House,  corner  of  Wall  and  Water  Streets.  For 
this  purpose  a  meeting  of  the  city  carriage-makers  was  called  together. 
Among  other  things,  Abram  Quick,  who  was  an  off-hand  and  free- 
spoken  man,  said,  "  Gentlemen,  we  are  in  a  similar  position  with  our 
Saviour  on  the  cross  :  we  are  between  two  thieves,  —  Connecticut  on 
the  one  hand,  and  New  Jersey  on  the  other."  This  opposition  on  tho 
part  of  the  trade  in  New  York  originated  the  establishment  of  carriage 
repositories  for  the  sale  of  ready-made  work. 

A  man  by  the  name  of  George  Burnie  is  said  to  have  been  the  first 
to  open  a  repository  in  New  York  for  the  sale  of  country-made  work, 
at  61  Walker  Street,  in  1823.     At  first  he  sold  on  commission,  but 

'  The  first  lauclau  built  in  New  York  is  said  to  have  been  done  in  the  shop  of  William 
and  John  E.  Ross,  at  138  and  140  Fulton  Street,  by  James  Ross.  Mr.  Slack,  who  was  a 
journeyman  in  another  shop,  and  noted  for  a  nice  taste  when  applied  to  carriages,  on 
one  occasion  was  passing  by  the  shop  when  this  landau  stood  in  front  on  the  sidewalk. 
Ross,  who  saw  him  passing,  hailed  him  with,  "What  do  you  think  of  this,  Slack?" 
Slack,  passing  his  hand  over  the  panel  in  a  careless  manner,  sneeringly  replied,  "  Oh, 
pi'etty  well,  considering  who  made  it"  and  went  on  his  way,  leaving  Ross  to  draw  his 
own  inferences. 


COUJSFTET  WORK  IN  CITY  BEFOSITOBIES.  429 

finding  it  more  profitable  he  afterwards  bought  the  work  and  sold  it  on 
his  own  account.  From  report  we  incline  to  think  him  to  have  been 
a  shrewd  business  man.  His  imitators  in  the  same  line  were  Paul 
Perrin,  at  34  Canal  Street,  who  afterwards  vamoosed  with  other  people's 
funds ;  Isaac  Mix,  also  in  Canal  Street ;  John  Cook,  successor  to 
Burnie  ;  John  Thompson,  27  "Wooster  Street ;  McChesney  &  Lawrence, 
in  Broadway,  above  Canal  Street,  and  since  by  others.  A  society  was 
likewise  organized  among  the  journeymen,  with  advantage  to  no  one, 
except  that  it  drove  trade  into  the  country,  where  from  1825  to  1830 
the  manufiicture  of  carriages  was  chiefly  done,  and  afterwards  shipped 
to  New  York.  Especially  was  this  the  case  in  Connecticut,  and  every 
little  village  had  its  carriage-maker's  shop,  many  of  them  with  one  or 
more  New  York  journeymen.  Although  much  of  the  Avork  sold  in 
New  York  is  still  made  elsewhere,  yet  in  consequence  of  the  reckless- 
7iess  of  some  manufacturers  in  getting  up  "  cheap  work  "  to  undersell 
the  "city-made,"  the  tide  has  since  set  in  favor  of  the  latter,  and  the 
best  carriages  are  now  produced  by  a  few  leading  houses  in  the  me- 
tropolis. The  fact  is,  that  where  rents  are  high,  to  get  up  cheap  work 
will  not  pay.  This  truth  has  so  long  been  "dinned"  into  the  ears  of 
customers  by  interested  parties,  that  the  public,  who  have  the  "tin," 
have  come  to  accept  it  as  a  fixed  fact,  and  so  are  readily  induced  to 
give  a  higher  price  for  city-made  carriages  than  for  any  other.  The 
price  demanded  requires  that  the  Avork  be  done  in  the  best  manner 
possible  in  order  to  sustain  a  reputable  position  with  the  public,  and 
to  do  this  the  mechanic  is  encouraged  by  the  price  he  gets  for  it. 

We  now  propose  to  give  illustrations  of  some  of  the  carriages  of 
"the  period,"  taken  from  a  manuscript  volume  prepared  by  the  author 
of  this  work  over  forty  years  ago,  transferred  from  the  black-board. 
The  first  was  called  a  buggy,  the  body 
of  which,  if  not  very  handsome,  Avas  yet 
very  strong  and  substantial.  The  side 
elevation  Avas  composed  of  rocker  and 
pillar,  behind  Avhich  was  placed  a  board 
three  quarters  of  an  inch  thick  to  serve 
as  the  side  panel,  on  Avhich  Avas  glued 
and  fastened  by  scrcAvs  from  the  inside  American  buggt,  i826. 
a  broad,  half-round  molding  for  ornamental  purposes.  From  this 
example  the  reader  Avill    readily  see   that  Aveight  Avas  no   objection 


430  AMEBICAW   WOULD   OIT  WHEELS. 

to  a  carriage  in  those  days.  This  vehicle  was  designed  by  no  less  a 
workman  than  John  Graham,  who  had  acted  as  foreman  in  the  shop 
of  Messrs.  McChesney  &  Lawrence,  the  Broadway  coach-makers,  pre- 
viously mentioned  in  these  pages. 

The  next  was  known  as  the  fantail  gig,  besides  which  there  was 
another  called  the  tuh-hodied  gig,  this  last  being  similar  in  sweep  to 
the  gig  curricle  on  page  347.  These  were  strictly  Avhat  is  denomi- 
nated by  the  craft  paneled  jobs,  to  build  the  bodies  of  which  in  those 

times,  when  every- 
thing was  got  out  by 
hand  from  the  plank, 
required  from  five  to 
six  days.  A  circum- 
stance in  relation  to 
building  these  bodies 
will  astonish,  if  not 
amuse,     the     modern 

FANTAlIiED     Cria.  -r        ,  l  , 

workman.  In  the  cat- 
alogue of  builders  of  post-coaches  mentioned  on  another  page  we  have 
alluded  to  one  Chapman,  of  Northampton,  Massachusetts.  This  man, 
when  a  journeyman,  labored  in  the  same  shop  with  our  boss,  one 
Daniel  Piatt.  Many  times  we  have  heard  him  relate,  as  an  incentive 
to  greater  exertion  among  the  hands,  the  exploits  of  Chapman  in 
building  gig  bodies.  Said  he,  "  Chapman  was  the  fastest  man  I  ever 
saw  for  making  gig  bodies.  He  was  accustomed  to  make  a  body  in 
two  days,  and  the  only  tools  used  were  an  ax,  drawing-knife,  and 
plane  !  "  Some  of  the  workmen,  not  over-credulous  nor  much  refined, 
used  to  say  that  it  was  well  for  the  craft  that  he  early  "  shufiied  off 
this  mortal  coil,"  for  had  he  lived  he  would  have  monopolized  all  the 
trade,  and  left  very  little  for  others  to  do.i 

A  very  fashionable  wagon  of  the  period  (1827)  is  shown  in  the  next 
engraving,  copied  from  our  hand-book.  In  the  eyes  of  the  modern 
mechanic  it  appears  to  much  disadvantage,  but  at  the  time  they  were 
considered  handsome,  especially  Avhen  graced  with  a  bow-top  or  head. 

'  A  Boston  chaise  aib  this  date  sold  for  $150  to  $200,  and  sometimes,  -when  richly- 
plated,  as  high  as  $250.  The  actual  costs  were  about  as  follows  :  cost  of  body,  $23 ; 
ditto  Avheels,  $15;  carriage  part,  $7;  iron-work,  $22;  painting,  15;  trimming,  $17; 
silver-plating,  $18  ;  total  costs,  $175. 


EAELT  PHAETONS  AND   CHABIOTEES.  431 

The  body  is  of  the  description  known  as  a  "  slat-sided  job,"  but  of 

simple  construction,  consisting  of  bottom  sides,  bob-pillars,  slats,  and 

raves,    the   panel    having    but    little 

swell. 

Another  carriage   of  the  period  is 

depicted  in  the  center  engraving  on 

this  page,  and  known  as  a  chariotee, 

although  the  claim  to  such  honor  is 

questionable.       The     hinder    portion 

took  the  form  of  a  tub-bodied  gig,  slat-side  phaeton, 

which,  having  an  extended  toe-board,  supplied  room  for  a  second  seat 

by  the  addition  of  standards  made  out  of  hard  wood.     For  a  summer 

carriage  it  answered  a  very 
good  purpose,  but  exposed  the 
passenger  too  much  in  winter 
weather,  even  when  supplied 
with  an  extension  top. 

A  far  better  design  for  a 
chariotee  is  found  in  the  figure 
below,  constructed  with  doors 
in  the  sides.  This  is  known 
among  the  craft  as  a  paneled 
job,  and  in  its  day  was  consid- 
ered a  very  aristocratic  vehi- 
chariotee.  cle,  to  build  Avhich  taxed  the 

ingenuity  of  many  of  our  best  workmen.     The  so-called  "  French 

rule  "  was  then  unknown  among  us,  and  those  who  undertook  to  build 

were  compelled  to  work  chiefly  by 

the  eye,  which  is  not  always  a  safe 

guide,   especially  where  the  non- 
mechanical    eyes    outnumber    the 

mechanical.     But  art  was  then  in 

its    infancy,   and  our  granddames 

thought  themselves  fortunate  when 

they  got  a  ride  to  meeting  in  one 

of  these  vehicles.  American   Chariotee. 

Prior  to  this  period  (1827)  there  had  been  no  vehicles  constructed 
for  the  special  purj^ose  of  taking  up  and  setting  down  passengers  in 


432 


AMEBIGAN  WOBLB   ON   WHEELS. 


the  streets  of  New  York,  although  the  suburbs  at  Greenwich  Village, 
Yorkville,  and  Harlem  were  connected  with  Wall  Street  by  regular 
trips  through  the  day. 

Jolni  Stephenson,  Esq.,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  annexed 
drawing,  and  many  facts  given  in  connection  with  this  portion  of  our  his- 
tory, informs  us  that  the  first  vehicle  constructed  for  street  passengers 
was  the  accommodation,  seating  twelve  persons  inside,  the  passengers 

entering  at  the  sides. 
The  body  of  this  car- 
riage hung  on  leather 
thorough-braces,  some- 
thing after  the  manner 
of  the  post-coaches  of 
the  times,  of  which  it 
Avas  a  modification.  This 
was  made  by  Wade  & 
Leverich  for  Al)raham 

The    Accommodation.  BrOWCr,  who  ran  it   OU 

Broadway,  from  Blceker  to  Wall  Street,  at  the  uniform  fare  of  one 
shilling  a  head  for  all  distances,  Bleeker  Street  in  those  times  being 
"away  up  town." 

In  1829  the  sociable  Avas  placed  on  the  same  line.  This  Avas  made 
by  the  same  firm  and  rnn  l)y  the  same  OAvner  as  previously  named,  the 
design  in  both  being  somewhat  similar,  only  the  latter  Avas  entered 
from  the  rear 
instead  of  the 
sides,  by  means 
of  aniroustair- 
Avay  furnished 
Avith  a  hand- 
rail, as  shoAvn 
in  the  picture. 
This  is  said  to 
have  been  the 
first     vehicle 

used    for    pas-  ^'"°. 

sengers  in  Ncav  Yorlc,  having  seats  running  lengtliAvisc  Avith  tlie  l)ody, 
the  sides  of  Avhich  Avcre  provided  Avith  movable  glass  frames  and  cur- 


HACKS  AND  AMERICAN  BABOUCHES. 


433 


tains.  The  body  was,  like  the  previous  one,  hung  on  thorougli-braces, 
these  last  resting  upon  a  frame  supported  by  three  cradle-springs. 
This  sociable,  although  clumsily  made  and  hanging  high,  was  easy- 
riding.^  The  same  year  Ephraim  Dodge  ran  a  hack  from  the  city 
proper  to  South  Boston.  The  route  lay  over  the  old  bridge,  up 
Fourth  Street,  the  attempt  to  use  the  main  street  being  frustrated  l)y 
the  sinking  of  the  carriage  to  the  hul)s  in  the  soft  clay.  Soon  after  a 
second  hack  was  put  on  the  line,  fare  ninepence  (twelve  and  a  half 
cents)  .2  An  opposition  line  was  started  in  1838,  when  the  fare  was 
reduced  to  six  cents. 

Our  next  illustration  represents   a  species  of  barouche.      This 


of  the  coach,  then  seldom  to 


some  degree  took  the  place 
except  in  the  larger  cities. 
It  carried  four  passengers 
inside  and  two  on  the  dickey- 
seat,  this  last  being  built  in 
the  body,  as  shown  in  the 
engraving.  A  baggage-rack 
attached  to  the  body  by 
leather  straps  was  an  indis 

pensable  adjunct   to  all  Vehi-  American    Barouchf.. 

cles  of  this  kind.  The  sword-case,  an  heirloom  of  feudal  times  in 
Europe,  was  then  generally  put  on  in  solid  wood,  "more  for  ornament 
than  use."  Crime  has  since  so  much  increased  that  a  pistol-case  might 
with  advantage  occupy  its  former  position. 

A  more  pretentious  barouche,  hung  upon  C-springs,  appears  in  the 

next  illustration,  which 
^YQ  have  selected  from  a 
collection  of  drawings 
made  by  Getting,  from 
Paris,  for  G.  &  A.  K. 
Carter,  once  popular  car- 
riage-makers in  Newark, 
]Sr.  J. 3  Although  simple 
BAROUCHE.  "1  design,  there  is  a  look 


'  From  a  letter  to  the  author  by  John  Stephenson,  Esq. 

*  See  Simonds's  History  of  South  Boston,  p.  224. 

^  For  this  and  several  other  designs  that  follow  we  are  under  obligations  to  the  late 


434 


AMERICAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


of  neatness  about  it  absolutely  charming.  A  detached  dickey-seat 
graces  the  front  of  the  vehicle,  being  quite  an  improvement  over  the 
preceding,  as  will  be  observed  on  comparison  therewith.  To  ride  in 
such  a  carriage  was  sufficient  to  attract  the  attention  of  all  eyes  in 
those  days. 

We  have  stated  in  another  place  that  coaches  were  seldom  seen  in 
this  country,  outside  of  the  larger  cities,  at  the  period  of  which  we 

write.  Of  those  made, 
Newark  chiefly  mo- 
nopolized the  trade. 
We  give  an  illustra- 
tion, by  Getting,  of 
the  traveling  coach 
of  1830.  Only  a  fa- 
vored few  could  main- 
tain so  expensive  an 
establishment  as  this, 
American   Teaveling   Coach.  and    the    roads     over 

which  it  was  safe  for  such  to  travel  were  comparatively  scarce.  The 
"budget"  and  trunk-seat  we  have  met  with  before  in  our  English  his- 
tory, consequently  we  cannot  claim  originality  in  this  particular. 

The  next  ens^raving 
represents  a  coachee, 
also  hung  upon  C- 
springs,  but  costing  a 
trifle  less  to  build  than 
a  coach,  being  finished 
with  side  curtains  to 
roll  up  in  place  of  pan- 
els. Aside  from  the 
expense,  a  vehicle  thus 
constructed  not  only 
looks    much    lio-hter,  c-speing  coachee. 


firm  of  Quimby  &  Co.,  of  Newark,  N.  J.,  in  whose  possession,  as  successors  of  Carter  & 
Mitchell,  the  originals  now  are,  and  who  kindly  permitted  us  to  copy  them  in  a  reduced 
form  for  this  work.  Getting,  who  made  his  drawings  chiefly  from  finished  carriages, 
was  quite  an  expert  in  this  line  of  business,  at  which  he  spent  two  or  three  years  in 
this  country. 


PHAETON  AND   TBAVELINO   CHABIOT. 


435 


but  is  really  more  airisli,  —  two  very  requisite  essentials  in  a  town  equi- 
page. A  great  fault  with  the  greater  proportion  of  our  earlier  car- 
riages was,  they  hung  too  high  from  the  ground,  necessitating  a  long 
folding-step,  which  when  not  in  use  was  hidden  away  inside  of  the 
door,  rendering  the  carriage  very  dangerous,  as  well  as  liable  to 
upsetting. 

In  the  accompanying  illus- 
tration we  have  a  dickey-seat 
phaeton  for  the  first  time  in 
this  new  country,  adding  to 
our  then  limited  variety  of 
vehicles.  The  Stanhope  and 
Tilbury  were  both  introduced 
about  this  time  (1830),  and 
this  phaeton  is  mainly  an 
adaptation  of  the  former  to  a  new  purpose,  the  construction  of  a  novel 
carriage,  differing  from  any  which  the  American  public  had  been 
accustomed  to  see  on  the  streets. 

The  traveling  chariot  is  another  of  the  designs  furnished  by  our 


DiCKET-SEAT     PlIAETON. 


'RAVELING  Chariot. 


Newark  friends,  the  general  character  of  which  is  unmistakably  Euro- 
pean.    It  is  a  very  fair  specimen,  on  a  limited  scale,  of  what  would 


436 


AMEBIGAN   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


have  been  clone  in  America  in  the  preparation  for  traveling,  had  not 
the  ''  iron  horse  "  made  its  advent  in  the  nick  of  time.  Its  facilities 
for  the  storage  of  luggage  are  quite  limited  when  compared  Avith  those 
in  Chapter  X.  Indeed,  they  scarcely  meet  the  demands  of  a  Sara- 
toga belle  in  modern  times.  But  then  our  grandmothers  were  less 
exacting,  and  did  not  make  such  heavy  drafts  on  their  husbands' 
pockets  ! 

In  1831  the  Stanhope  fever,  which  had  reached  our  shores  from 
England,  raged  in  this  country  f(n*  one  or  two  years,  culminating  in 

the  Siamese  monstrosity  here 
annexed.  To  this  carriage, 
by  extending  the  bottom  sill, 
a  place  for  baggage  was  pro- 
vided behind,  the  like  exten- 
sion in  front  serving  as  a 
support  for  the  dickey-seat. 
This  vehicle  was  a  little  too 
Double  btanhope,  clumsy  to  suit  the  American 

taste.  With  its  disappearance  came  the  Carter  buggy,  which  follows, 
being  simply  the  Stanhope  body  hung  off  on  elliptical  springs.  Up 
to  this  period  American  art  was  largely  indebted  to  European  taste 
for  its  fashions,  especially  where  the  carriage  was  built  to  order.  Not 
only  did  we  copy  their  designs,  but  likewise  used  the  same  kind  of 
timber  and  the  like  clumsiness  in  constructing  the  wheels.  Hickory 
was  not  employed  for  spokes  until 
after  the  invention  of  the  eccen- 
tric lathe,  somewhere  about  this 
time.  It  was  found  so  much 
stronger  than  oak  that  it  came 
into  general  use,  causing  an  entire 
revolution  in  the  construction  of 
American  wheels. 

The   first    illustration   on   next 
page  represents  an  American  cab-  carter's  Neva 

violet.  This,  too,  originated  abroad,  losing  something  of  its  ])eauty  in 
its  voyage  across  the  Atlantic.  What  else  could  be  expected  when 
every  body-maker  was  left  to  do  his  own  drafting  and  provide  his  own 
patterns  before  he  could  proceed?      The  wonder  at  this  distance  of 


CABFIOLET,   SULKY,  AND   OMNIBUS. 


437 


^i  M  L  li  I  c  A  ; 


time  is,  that  he  succeeded  as  well  as  he  did,  or  that  he  succeeded  at 
all.  It  may  be  prof- 
itable to  compare 
this  with  the  Eng- 
lish cabriolet  on 
page  372. 

The  next  figure 
represents  the  vehi- 
cle we  call  a  sulky. 
The  name  is  said  to 
have  originated  thus :  An  English  physician  (Dr.  Darwin)  found  that 
he  lost  much  valuable  time  in  allowing  another  to  ride  with  him  when 
on  his  professional  visits,  so  he  had  a  carriage  built  so  narrow  that  it 
could  not  be  expected  to  hold  more  than  one  person.  His  disappointed 
friends,  divining  his  purpose,  derisively  called  his  improved  vehicle  a 

"  sulky,"  by  which  name  it 
has  been  handed  down  to  our 
times.  American  ladies,  piqued 
at  the  exclusiveness  Avith  which 
the  men  use  it,  have  named  it 
"the  selfish."  It  probably  is 
nothing  more  than  a  whisky 
snLKY.  in  a  simplified  form,  and  is  a 

much  less  expensive  article  of  manufacture.     They  cost  from  seventy- 
five  to  a  hundred  dollars. 

We  have  already  described  the  accommodation  and  the  sociable, 
two  vehicles  heretofore  placed  at  the  service  of  the  New  York  public. 
Twelve  years  had  already  passed  since  Lafitte  in  Paris,  and  two  since 
Shillibeer  in  London,  had  introduced  vehicles  of  the  kind  into  those 
two  populous  cities,  when  on  one  fine  day  in  1831  the  citizens  of  New 
York  were  startled  by  the  appearance  on  Broadway  of  a  heavy  carriage 
with  the  word  "  omnibus,"  in  large  letters,  painted  on  the  side  panels. 
The  unclassical  reader  must  understand  that  omnibus  is  the  plural  of 
omnis  in  Latin,  meaning  "all"  ;  in  plain  English,  a  "carry-all"  for  those 
who  are  willing  to  pay  for  a  ride .  This  omnibus ,  somewhat  different  from 
the  European,  was  designed  and  constructed  by  John  Stephenson,  of 
New  York,  who  has  since  become  the  most  famous  builder  in  America. 
This  first  omnibus  body  was  hung  ofi*  on  four  elliptical  springs,  with 


438 


AMEBICAN   WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


short  leather  braces  mtervening.  These  not  fully  answering  the  pur- 
poses intended,  the  builder  afterwards  dispensed  with  the  perch  and 
substituted  the  French  platform  springs  for  the  elliptic,  with  such  suc- 
cess that  they  have  ever  since  been  used  in  this  class  of  vehicles  as 


rotv^ek's   Omnibus. 


preferable  to  all  others.  At  first  the  fare,  from  Bond  Street  to  the 
Battery,  —  taken  by  a  boy  standing  at  the  rear,  after  the  French  mode, 
—  was  twelve  and  a  half  cents. 

We  have  seen  in  the  course  of  our  history  some  account  of  the  oppo- 
sition interested  parties  have  shown  on  the  introduction  of  new  vehicles 
for  puljlic  patronage,  as  in  the  case  of  coaches,  etc.,  into  London. 
Something  akin  to  this  hostility  was  manifested  in  several  instances, 
especially  by  the  class  Taylor  aimed  his  diatribes  against.  Even  the 
press  was  not  baclovard  in  describing  the  foibles  of  the  drivers.  One 
writer  tells  us  that  "  the  character  of  the  omnibus  drivers  has  become 
brutal  and  dangerous  in  the  highest  degree.  They  race  up  and  down 
Broadway  and  through  Chatham  Street  with  the  utmost  fury.  Broad- 
way especially,  between  the  Park  and  Wall  Street,  is  almost  daily  the 
scene  of  some  outrage,  in  which  the  lives  of  citizens  riding  in  light 
vehicles  are  put  in  imminent  hazard.  Not  content  with  running  upon 
everything  which  comes  in  their  way,  they  turn  out  of  their  course  to 
break  down  other  carriages.  Yesterday  a  gentleman  driving  down 
Broadway,  and  keeping  near  the  west  side,  was  run  down  by  an  omni- 
bus going  up,  the  street  being  perfectly  clear  at  the  time,  the  omnibus 


OMNIBUS  DRIVERS'  NAUGHTY  TRICKS.  439 

leaving  full  twice  its  width  of  empty  space  on  the  right  of  its  track. 
At  the  same  spot  a  hackney-coach  (  !  )  was  crushed  between  two  of 
them  the  day  before.     It  is  but  a  few  days  since  we  published  the 


g^g 


account  of  a  physician  being  run  down  near  the  same  spot,  his 
ruined,  and  his  horse  nearly  so,  and  his  own  life  placed  in  the  most 
imminent  hazard.  A  ferocious  spirit  appears  to  have  taken  possession 
of  the  drivers,  which  defies  law  and  delights  in  destruction.  It  is 
indispensable  that  a  decisive  police  should  be  held  on  those  men,  or 
the  consequences  of  their  conduct  will  result  in  acts  which  will  shock 
the  whole  city."  i 

Again,  "A  ticket-boy  in  one  of  Gray's  Bleecker  Street  stages  had 
the  efirontery  to  demand  of  a  young  lady  one  dollar  for  eight  tickets, 
requiring  her  at  the  same  time  to  pay  for  a  small  child,  Avhich  is  at 
least  unusual,  telling  her  they  gave  eight  tickets  for  one  dollar.  Mr. 
Gray  was  informed  of  the  imposition,  and  requested  to  return  the 
money  or  the  additional  eight  tickets  ;  but  after  walking  eight  times  to 
the  Bleecker  House,  the  friend  of  the  lady  was  told  by  Mr.  Gray  that 
he  could  not  answer  for  the  honesty  of  his  boys."^ 

A  few  months  later  complaint  was  made  that  "  the  Broadway  stage 
Alice  Gray  was  driving  up  the  street  at  the  rate  of  about  nine  miles  an 
hour,  when  the  axle-tree  broke  and  down  tumbled  the  driver,  bringing 
his  own  same  self  with  him  to  the  ground.  What  a  pity  it  did  not 
break  his  —  nose."  ^ 

Fortunately  the  next  year  (1832)  witnessed  a  radical  change  in  the 
conveyance  of  street  passengers,  in  the  end  putting  a  stop  to  many  of 
the  abuses  above  complained  of.  The  New  York  and  Harlem  Eailroad 
Company,  having  laid  a  portion  of  the  track  from  Prince  to  Fourteenth 
Streets,  they  placed  a  car  thereon,  named  the  "John  Mason,"  to  be 
drawn  by  Jaorse-power.  Mr.  John  Stephenson,  to  whom  we  are 
indebted  for  our  illustration,  claims  that  he  was  the  first  manufacturer 
in  the  world  to  build  a  street-car.  He  will  see  that  he  is  mistaken, 
should  the  English  claim  for  another  Mr.  Stephenson,  on  page  364,  be 
admitted.  This  car  consisted  of  three  compartments,  each  holding 
ten  passengers,  entrance  being  had  through  three  doors  in  each  side, 
the  doors  at  the  ends,  with  lengthwise  seats,  not  coming  into  use  until 

'  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  May  6,  1835. 
*  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser,  June  16,  1835. 
'  Spirit  of  Seventy-six,  Sept.  24,  1835, 


MO 


AMEBICAN   WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


1845.  These  compartments  carried  ten  persons,  five  on  a  seat,  facing 
each  other.  Seats  for  thirty  more,  reached  by  steps  at  the  ends,  for 
males,  were  formed  on  the  roof,  thus  furnishing  accommodations  for 
sixty  passengers.     Much  time  was  consumed  in  getting  tlie  passengers 


American    Btuf. et-car. 


on  and  off  the  roofs,  sometimes  these  breaking  down  with  the  weight ; 
in  consequence,  this  mode  of  construction  was  soon  abandoned.  After 
various  experiments,  the  present  mode  of  construction  was  reached, 
which  probably  is  the  best  that  can  be  employed. 

Some  of  the  designs  in  use  in  1838  have  at  the  present  time  a  rather 
unfavorable  appearance.  We.  give  a  specimen  from  the  draft-book  of 
Mr.  John  C.  Parker,  the  successor  of  Milne  Parker,  to  whom  we  have 

before  alluded  in 
these  pages.  This 
vehicle,  called  a 
Clarence,  was  in  its 
day  considered  a 
very  fine  carriage, 
and  was  extensively 
patronized  by  some 
of  the  most  fashion- 
able citizens  in  this 
country.      Occasion 


A  JI  E  R  I  C  A  I 


Clarence. 

will  be  given  to  compare  this  with  the  more  modern  Clarence  before 
closing  this  volume. 

We  have  examined  the  draft-books  of  some  of  the  most  popular 


NEW  STABT  IN  CABBIAGE-BUILDING. 


441 


builders  of  former  clays,  and  found  that  in  design  they  are  quite  defec- 
tive. The  coachee  from  the  Parker  collection  is  a  fair  exhibit  of  the 
better  class  of  work  made  in  New  York  City  at  this  time.  Should  an 
expert  compare  this  drawing  with  the  one  on  page  434,  he  Avill  find 
that  although  this  was 
made  some  ten  3'ears 
later,  still  very  little 
progress  has  been 
made.  This  lack  of 
advancement  is  doubt- 
less due  to  the  fact 
that  the  Newark  car- 
riage-builders had  se- 
cured a  professional 
designer   from   Paris,  pabker-scoachee. 

while  no  house  in  this  city  had  any  such  assistance.  Wealthy  citizens 
in  those  days  were  comparatively  scarce,  and  the  few  orders  then 
obtained  for  first-class  work  did  not  warrant  the  expense  involved  by 
employing  an  educated  artist.  Indeed,  trade  in  the  city  had  dwindled 
down  to  little  else  than  repairing,  when  through  the  efforts  of  a  single 
individual  it  took  a  new  start.  This  was  the  late  Isaac  Ford,  who, 
believing  that  a  lighter  and  better  class  of  work  would  find  a  ready 
sale,  undertook  the  manufacture  at  114  Elizabeth  Street.  His  success 
induced  others  to  engage  in  the  same  business,  until  unitedly  a  class 
of  work  was  produced  that  defied  competition  on  the  part  of  country 
builders,  from  the  simple  fact  that  under  no  circumstances  could  they 
obtain  a  price  for  their  buggies  that  Avould  pay,  even  supposing  that 
they  were  equally  well  made.  The  opening  of  the  Central  Park  in  1856 
gave  carriage-building  in  New  York  a  still  further  impulse,  by  creating 
a  demand  for  the  heavier  and  more  expensive  class  of  carriages  from 
the  wealthy  in  our  midst. ^ 

The  j)lan  laid  down  for  this  volume  obliges  us  to  bestow  some  atten- 
tion on  the  business  portion  of  the  world  on  wheels,  and  tiiis  is  a 

'  The  Central  Park,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  world,  has  an  area  of  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-two  and  fifty-nine  one  hundredths  acres,  is  bounded  by  Fifty-ninth  Street  on  the 
south,  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  Street  on  the  north,  located  between  the  Fifth  and 
Eighth  Avenues,  is  twice  the  size  of  any  in  London.  The  drives  OA^er  good  roads  and 
amidst  picturesque  scenery  surpass  any  we  have  seen  in  Europe.  We  have  given  a 
view  of  a  portion  of  the  drive  to  accompany  the  initial  letter  of  this  chapter. 


442 


AMEBICAN    WOBLD    ON   WHEELS. 


Butchers*  and  Gbocers'  Caht 


proper  place  to  do  so.     Previous  to  1838  a  clumsily  constructed  cart 
had  ])eeii  uuivcrsallj'  in  use  hy  the  butchers  and  grocers  of  New  York 

City.  This  an- 
swered a  very 
good  purpose 
when  run  over 
the  rough  cob- 
blestone pave- 
ment then  in 
vogue.  But 
after  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Bel- 
gian i^avement,  a  lighter  description  of  cart  took  its  place.  This  cart 
has  continued  in  general  use  down  to  the  present  day  among  the  mar- 
ket-men and  butchers  of  the  metropolis,  it  being  a  much  more  conven- 
ient   vehicle.  

Butcher  boys 
are  proverbi- 
ally reckless 
when  driving 
through  the 
public  thor- 
oughfares,and 
giving  them  a  ^I 
lighter  cart  -^ 
has  in  nowise  improved  butcher's  cart. 

improved  their  conduct,  as  citizens  suffering  at  their  hands  will  testify. 
About  the  same  time  in  which  improvement  was  made  in  the  butchers 

cart,  a  new 
style  of 
wagon  was 
built  for  the 
grocery- 
men  similar 


American  Express  Wago 


CAB  AND   TUBN-OYEB-SEAT  PHAETON.  443 

only  difference  being  that  instead  of  two,  only  one  side  rave  ran 
tlirongh  the  middle  of  the  body.  Out  of  this  grew  the  modern  express- 
wagon,  chiefly  employed  in  transporting  baggage  and  parcels  in  the 
principal  cities.  Some  of  these  express-wagons  are  very  handsomely 
finished  and  painted.     The  best  made  come  from  Concord,  N.  H. 

About  the  year  1840  a  new  description  of  street-cab  came  into  use, 
to  the  serious  injury  of  the  old  hackney-coachmen  neglecting  to  pro- 
vide themselves  with  one.     For  a  time  they  created  a  fever,  everybody 


American    Cab. 

wanting  to  take  a  ride  in  them.     The  originals  were  built  by  

Vanderwerken,  of  Jersey  City,  with  the  shafts  attached  to  the  body, 
the  axles  extending  around  it  in  front.  These  were  afterwards  im- 
proved by  securing  the  shafts  to  the  axle,  as  shown  in  the  diagram. 
The  most  prominent  builder  in  Ncav  York  City  was  Joseph  E.  Ayres, 
in  Mercer  Street,  whose  success  led  to  a  lawsuit  from  the  alleged  pat- 
entee. The  result  was,  the  Jerseyman  lost  the  suit  and  was  saddled 
with  the  costs,  the  principle  on  which  the  patent  was  given  having 
been  shown  to  be  old. 

The  annexed  figure  represents  a 
turn-over-seat  phaeton^  made  by  John 
C.  Parker  for  David  Austen  in  1843. 
This  is  chiefly  interesting  as  showing 
with  what  simplicity  and  cheapness  a 
vehicle  may  be  constructed  with  solid 
sides,  and  at  the  same  time  make  a 
respectable-looking  phaeton,  designed  phaeton. 

for  either  two  or  four  passengers,  as  may  be  desirable.     AVhen  in  the 


444 


AMEBICAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


mood  for  "cutting  a  swell,"  the  "master"  might  hold  the  ribbons, 
while  the  servant  enjoys  himself  on  the  back  seat,  a  la  Anglais. 

The  grocery-wagon  iDrcviously  noticed  continued  exclusively  to  be 
used  until  1844,  when  the  author  of  this  volume  built  two  improved 
wagons  for  Thomas  Iv.  jSTe^vton,  the  original  vender  of  bottled  soda- 
water,  which 
are  repre- 
sented in  the 
annexed  en- 
graving. The 
slats  seen  in 
the  express- 
wagon  on 
page  442  are 
concealed  in 
this  example 
by  paneling 
the      outside 

Improved    Kusixkss   Wagon. i  audliniugthe 

inside.  The  moldings  added  to  the  outside  give  the  job  much  the 
character  of  paneled  work,  which  after  painting  and  ornamenting 
makes  a  handsome  business  wagon,  the  popularity  of  which  continues 
to  this  day. 

About  the  year  1830  a  carriage-builder  in  Jamaica,  Long  Island, 
New  York,  made  a  wagon  for  Maltby  Gettson,  a  resident  of  that  vil- 
lage, with  wooden  springs  on  the  outside  of  the  body.  The  body 
itself  was  a  plain  affair,  similar  to  the  country  wagons  then  common 
throughout  New  England.  Afterwards  elliptical  springs  were  substi- 
tuted for  the  wooden,  when  a  bow-top  was  added.  The  boAvs  were 
secured  to  the  body  on  the  outside  by  riveting,  and  these  again  Avere 
covered  with  muslin  and  then  painted.  At  this  time  it  Avas  simply 
termed  a  top-wagon.  This  wagon,  being  very  commodious  and  Avell 
protected  from  the  weather,  attracted  the  attention  of  several  gentle- 
men, among  whom  Avere  Jonathan  Sturges  and  George  A.  Cony,  citi- 
zens of  NcAv  York.  These  vehicles  attracting  the  notice  of  others  on 
the  street,  such  Avas  the  demand  created  thereby  that  a  dealer  Avas 

>  The  cuts  representing  this,  the  two  butchers'  carts,  and  the  express-wagon,  on 
page  442,  have  been  generously  lent  us  by  Mr.  J.  L.  Kipp,  of  New  York  City. 


BOCK  AW  AY  AND   OEBMANTOWN. 


445 


ROCKAWAY, 


encouraged  to  place  a  few  in  his  repository  for  sale.  The  novelty  of 
these  Avagons,  in  contrast  with  other  carriages,  led  to  inquiries  where 
they  were  made.  The  dealer  whose  interest  was  involved  in  the  sale, 
in  order  to  mislead,  replied  at  Eockaway,  with  the  full  knowledge  that 
no  shop  Avas  in  existence  there. 
It  was  not  long,  however,  be- 
fore the  truth  came  out,  and 
tEe  folloAving  winter  the  Ja- 
maica carriage-builders  were 
crowded  with  orders  from  city 
customers  requiring  Rockaways 
for  the  next  spring's  use.  Our 
authority  for  these  facts  —  Ja- 
cob Smith,  Esq.,  of  Jamaica  — 
tells  us  that  some  of  these 
Eockaways  with  wooden  axle- 
trees  may  still  be  found  in  that  village.  In  1845  the  Eockaway  had 
taken  the  shape  seen  in  the  above  illustration  from  the  Parker  Collec- 
tion, retaining  scarcely  a  semblance  of  the  original  of  fifteen  years' 
earlier  design.  How  INIr.  Parker  came  to  build  these  carriages  is  thus 
told  hj  Mr.  Smith  :  "  Some  years  ago  Mr.  Parker  visited  Jamaica  and 
ordered  a  Eockaway  body  made  without  painting,  saying  that  a  frac- 
tious horse  had  run  away  with  the  wagon  of  a  customer  in  the  city  and 
broken  it,  adding  that  he  had  not  time  to  make  one  then.  This,  hoAV- 
ever,  Avas  merely  an  excuse,  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a 
pattern  from  A\diicli  to  build.     After  a  fcAV  years  this  pattern  Avent  to 

NcAV  Haven." 

There  is  another 
carriage  built,  some- 
times called  the  Ger- 
mantown  JRockaway^ 
Avhich  we  have  al- 
ready noticed  in  its 
13roper  place.  Our 
illustration  repre- 
sents a  Germantown 
as  made  in  1847.  Of 
ttERMAWTowN.  tlic    carlicr  drawing 


446 


AMEBICAN  WORLD   Olf  WHEELS. 


we  have  not  been  able  to  procure  a  copy,  but  the  one  under  considera- 
tion bears  so  strong  a  resemblance  to  the  foregoing,  that,  did  we  not 
entertain  the  highest  regard  for  Mr.  Smith's  report,  we  might  be 
induced  to  think  that  the  Long  Island  was  but  the  counterpart  of  tlie 
Germantown  Rockaway,  which  Mr.  Junkurth  assures  us  was  invented 
as  early  as  1816,  thus  anticipating  the  former  some  fourteen  years. 

After  our  war  with  Mexico,  and  the  cession  of  California  to  the 
United  States  in  1849,  and  its  golden  treasures  had  been  unearthed  to 
the  enrichment  of  many,  a  new  market  was  opened  to  various  branches 
of  manufacture,  among  them  a  costlier  class  of  carriages  than  had 
hitherto  been  in  general  request,  since  the  success  of  trade  had  created 
millionnaires  out  of  citizens  previously  poor.  These  rich  men,  as  is 
quite  natural,  concluded  that  they  must  make  a  show  corresponding 
with  improved  circumstances  by  "  setting  up  an  establishment."  To 
do  this  properly  called  into  use  more  extensively  a  heavier  class  of 
carriages  of  the  coach  variety.     At  first  these  were  of  faulty  design, 

compared  with  those 


now  made.  A  speci- 
men is  shown  in  the 
annexed  figure,  which 
previous  to  our  Civil 
War  found  extensive 
sale  in  the  Southern 
States  and  Mexico. 
The  gaudy  trimmings 
used  in  finishing  were 
in  direct  antagonism 


loUTIIERN    COACir. 


with  the  laws  of  good 
taste,  although  accommodated  to  the  demands  of  Creole  gaudiness  and 
Spanish  finery.  The  belligerency,  which  was  fiital  to  work  of  this 
description,  had  good  effect,  as  it  turned  the  attention  of  manufacturers 
in  another  direction,  where  more  tasty  and  a  better  class  of  work  was 
required.  Statistics  show  that  in  1850  there  were  1,822  carriage 
manufactories  in  the  United  States,  employing  some  14,000  hands. 


md  producin< 


■iages  amounting  to  $12,000,000. 


The  next  figure  represents  a  cut-under  huggy,  with  stick  seat,  that 
was  very  popular  at  this  time.  This  cut-under  somewhat  weakened 
the  body,  the  only  advantage  gained  being  that  it  permitted  a  shorter 


EDW.  AND  CHABLES  EVERETT S  PERCR-COUrLING.    447 


turning  of  the  vehicle  in  narrow  streets,  making  it  more  practical  for 
men  of  business  than  any  previously  in  use.  This  is  the  most  that 
can  be  advanced  in  its  favor, 
the  taste  with  which  it  origi- 
nated being  of  a  questionable 
character,  notwithstanding  its 
popularity  for  a  season. 

No  historical  work  like  ours 
would  be  complete  did  it  omit 
recording  the  wrong  done  to 
free  industry  by  what  has  been  cut. under  buggy.  ' 

technically  known  as  the  "perch-coupling."  We  give  it  as  briefly  as 
possible  for  the  benefit  of  posterity.  On  the  17th  of  December,  1850, 
Edward  and  Charles  Everett,  of  Quincy,  111.,  applied  for  and  obtained 
letters-patent  on  a  coupling,  a  drawing  of  which  is  shown.     In  this 

diagram,  d  represents  the 
front  axle;  b,  the  perch; 
e,  shaft  jacks  ;  f,  the  point 
on    which    the   fore   axle 
turns  ;  ?,  the  ball  and  socket 
joint ;  g,  the  circular  plate 
on  which  the  ball  traverses  ; 
h,   h,  the  radiating  arms 
supporting     the     circular 
plate ;    ^,    friction   roller ; 
y,  the  spring.     They  say, 
"  What  we  claim  as  new 
therein,  and  desire  to  secure  by  let- 
ters-patent, is  the  joint  on  which 
the  fore-carriage  turns  when  placed 
in  the  rear  of  the  fore  axle,  in  com- 
bination with  the  segment  on  which 
the  end  of  the  perch  rests,  substan- 
tially as  described,  for  the  purpose 
of  allowing  the  carriage  to  be  turned 
EvERETTs'  Perch -COUPLING.         juji  yniall  space ,  without  having  the 
fore- wheels  to  run  under  the  body,   or  to  interfere  with  the  hind- 
wheels."     Under  this  patent,  through  an  agency,  the  Everetts  disposed 


448 


AMEBICAN   WOBLD    OR  WHEELS. 


of  a  number  of  shop-rights  to  construct  carriages  on  their  principle,  by 
which  operation  they  placed  in  the  hands  of  many  builders  a  Pandora's 
box,  from  which  since  has  emanated  a  flood  of  sorrows,  as  will  be 

shown  in  the  sequel. 
On  the  23d  of  De- 
cember following, 
about  eight  days  after 
the  Everetts'  patent 
was  issued,  Gustavus 
L.  Haussknecht,  an 
emigrant  from  Ger- 
many, who  had  lo- 
cated in  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  forwarded  to 
Washington  the  mod- 
el and  specification, 
similar  in  design,  for 
the  "  Eunning  Gear 
of  Carriages,"  the 
same  after  examina- 
tion being  rejected 
on  the  15th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1851,  as  inter- 
fering with  the  patent 
claimed  by  the  Ever- 
etts. A  second  ap- 
plication was  more 
successful,  and  on 
the  16th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1851,  nearly  a 
year  after  the  date 
oftheEverettpatent, 
Haussknecht  ob- 
tained his  letters-pat- 
ent, the  absurdity  of 
which  is  amply  shown  in  the  diagram,  of  Avhich  a  sectional  view  of  the 
under  side  is  annexed.  Here  A  represents  the  axle-tree  ;  C,  D,  the 
fifth  wheel ;  U,  the  perch ;  c,  c,  the  hooks  which  lock  the  fifth-wheel 


HAUSSKNECHT'S  PEBCH-GOTJPLING.  449 

plates  ;  F,  the  sixth  wheel  bolted  to  the  under  side  of  the  hinder  axle- 
tree  ;  J,  P,  a  toggle-joint;  numerals  2,  3,  showing  pivots  on  which 
the  apparatus  operates.  The  following  are  Haussknecht's  specifications  : 
"  What  I  claim  as  my  invention  and  desire  to  secure  by  letters-patent 
is,  first,  the  employment  of  segments  O  and  Z),  and  fifth  wheels  F,  C 
(or  parts  corresponding  thereto),  attached  as  described;  the  segment, 
i>,  and  fifth  Avheel,  F,  working  on  pivots  between  the  front  and  hind 
axle,  such  parts  acting  in  combination  with  /,  P,  constructed  as  shown 
and  described  for  coupling  the  movements  of  two  axles  or  turning  ap- 
purtenances, for  the  purpose  set  forth."  A  brief  comparison  will  answer 
to  prove  this  latter  the  mere  plagiarism  of  the  former,  which  ought  to 
have  led  to  its  rejectment  at  once,  and  would  have  done,  had  not  the 
examiner  been  influenced  by  political  considerations,  as  is  alleged.  In 
order  to  get  over  the  difficulty,  Haussknecht  subsequently  made  applica- 
tion for  a  new  patent,  in  which  he  disclaimed  every  improvement  claimed 
in  the  old,  of  any  practical  Avorth.  He  on  this  occasion  said,  "I  do  not 
claim  these  parate  use  of  one  segment  on  which  the  ijcrch  rests,  neither 
do  I  claim  two  pivots  attached  to  the  body ;  but  what  I  do  claim  as  my 
invention,  and  desire  to  secure  by  letters-patent,  is  the  placing  the 
pivot  in  the  rear  of  the  fore 
axle,  in  combination  with  the 
two  sets  of  segments  in  circles, 
viz.,  segments  A.  and  /),... 
or  their  equivalents,  substan- 
tially as  described."  This  dia- 
gram shows  an  under-side  view 
of  Haussknecht's  second  model 
for  his  later  patent,  obtained 
Dec.  16,  1851,  a  year  later 
than  the  date  of  the  Everett 
patent.  A,  A.,  are  segments 
of  the  fifth  wheel,  of  which  a  another  haussknecht  coupling. 
is  the  bottom  plate,  and  a  1,  the  top;  d  1,  the  pivot;  c,  stop-hook; 
P,  head-block  ;  /,  axle  ;  and  K,  the  perch. 

It  now  remains  for  us  to  show  how  o-reat  a  wrona:  was  inflicted  on 
the  public  in  connection  with  these  couplings.  We  have  already  men- 
tioned that  the  Everetts  sold  by  agency  numerous  shop-rights  through- 
out the  country.     In  the  diagrams  supplied  to  their  customers,  the 


450  AMEBIOAN  WOBLD   OJV   WHEELS. 

friction-roller,  i,  in  the  Everett  coupling,  was  entirely  ignored,  and  a 
curved  head-block  substituted,  fitting  the  circular  plate,  g.  Of  this, 
however,  the  victims  were  not  advised,  this  blissful  state  of  affairs 
continuing  down  to  Jan.  15,  1857,  when  Haussknecht  once  more  sur- 
rendered his  letters-patent,  asking  for  new  ones  with  amended  specifi- 
cations, claiming,  (1)  the  combination  and  arrangement  of  the  pivots 
in  the  rear  of  the  fore  axle,  and  the  segments  with  the  perch  and  head- 
block  on  the  perch  cross-bar,  of  carriages  having  perches  as  hereinbe- 
fore described,  or  the  equivalents  thereto,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
carriages  to  turn  in  a  shorter  space  than  by  the  common  mode  of  coup- 
ling, with  perfect  safety  ;  (2)  the  additional  set  of  segments,  or  their 
equivalents,  the  pivots  placed  perpendicularly  above  the  lower  turning- 
point,  to  be  employed  where  the  springs  are  fastened  to  the  axle,  and 
move  with  the  same.  The  drawings  which  accompanied  these  specifica- 
tions are  so  nearly  identical  with  that  claimed  by  the  Everetts,  that 
we  are  surprised  at  the  manifest  stupidity  exhibited  in  granting  this 
patent. 

As  early  as  1855,  Haussknecht  declared  that  his  rivals'  patent  was  an 
infringement  on  his  own,  and  under  such  pretenses  had  commenced 
reprisals  on  the  carriage-builders,  demanding  money,  and  getting  it 
where  he  could  frighten ;  where  he  could  not  do  so,  following  the 
Adctim  with  a  lawsuit.  At  this  point  justice  required  that  the  Everetts 
should  have  come  forward  and  defended  their  customers,  but  in  this 
respect  they  were  culpably  negligent,  the  consequence  being  that, 
under  the  color  of  law,  Haussknecht  obtained  large  sums  for  infringe- 
ments on  a  patent  which  he  had  no  legal  claim  to,  as  has  since  been 
proved  in  several  courts  of  law.' 

About  the  time  that  Haussknecht  received  his  undeserved  letters- 
patent,  Uel  Reynolds,  a  New  York  carriage-builder,  invented  a  clip 

king-bolt    for    vehicles,    which   has 

been  universally  adopted   for   light 

work    in    America,    but    which    he 

REYNoi,Ds's  KING. BOLT.  ncglectcd  to  patcut  until  too  late. 

Circumstances  prove  that  Mr.  Eeynolds  did  not  at  the  proper  time 

estimate  the  real  value  of  his  invention.     Had  he  done  so  and  secured 

'  The  interested  reader  will  And  a  detailed  history  of  this  matter  in  the  sixth  volume 
of  the  M'W  York  Coach-makers  Magazine,  published  by  the  author,  under  the  heading 
of  "Perch-couplings  Dissected." 


USEFUL  INVENTION  IMPBOPEBLY  USED. 


451 


the  patent,  he  would  have  found  in  it  a  mine  of  wealth.  This  inven- 
tion Avas  afterwards  named  and  given  to  the  world  in  the  pages  of  the 
"New  York  Coach-maker's  Magazine."  Several  years  afterwards  (in 
September,  1865),  when  it  had  become  an  article  of  commerce  and  in 
miivcrsal  use  by  all  the  carriage-builders  in  this  country^  one  James 
Phelps,  of  Ked  Creek,  N.  Y.,  applied  for  a  patent  on  the  original 
invention  of  Uel  Reynolds,  and  no 
doubt  would  have  been  successful, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  Magazine  ex- 
hibit from  the  very  first.  After- 
wards, strange  as  it  may  appear,  he 
did  succeed  in  patenting  the  project- 
ing shoulders  or  bearings,  B,  B,  rest- 
ing on  the  axle  at  the  fork  of  the 
king-bolt,  these  also  having  been 
used  by  several  carriage-builders  pre- 
viously. After  the  governmental 
indorsement  of  the  simple  bearings, 
as  being  "  new  and  useful,"  the  way 
was  open  for  operation.  The  per- 
sistent patentee  had  only  to  assign  his  claim  to  some  enterprising 
individual,  which  was  done  in  this  instance ;  how  injurious  to  the  craft 
may  be  gathered  from  the  pages  of  the  "New  York  Coach-maker's 
Magazine."  These  two  examples  show  that  the  examiners-in-chief  at 
the  Patent  Office  are  too  lax  in  duty,  and  ought  to  exercise  more  cau- 
tion, unless  they  design  becoming  the  willing  abettors  of  all  that  is 
wrong,  under  the  sanction  of  law. 

By  placing  the  two  patent  cases  in  juxtaposition,  we  have  been 
obliged  to  anticipate  chronology  some  ten  years.  We  now  go  back  to 
1855,  when  the  buggy  represented  by  the  next  figure  was  in  fashion. 
This  was  named  in  honor  of  Jenny  Lind,  and  in  remembrance  of  her 
visit  to  this  country.  This  buggy  has  a  wooden  dash-board,  and  the 
top  is  secured  to  the  seat  by  means  of  a  shifting  rail,  —  an  invention  that 
came  into  common  use  in  1838  or  1839.  Like  the  other  improvements 
before  noticed,  these  rails,  in  the  hands  of  speculative  adventurers,  were 
at  one  time  the  cause  of  much  trouble  to  manufVicturers,  the  history  of 
which  will  l)e  found  in  the  second  volume  of  the  "  New  York  Coach- 
maker's  Magazine,"  published  by  the  author. 


Phelps's   King-bolt. 


452 


AMEBICAN  WORLD   ON  WHEELS. 


The  last  engraving  on  this  page  represents  a  physician's  close  Rock- 
away,  or  phaeton,  so  contrived  as  to  protect  them  from  the  inclemen- 
cies of  the  weather 
while  engaged  in 
pursuit  of  their  call- 
ing. The  bodies 
of  these  vehicles 
were  usually  jDan- 
eled  work,  hut 
much  labor  was 
saved  by  having  the 
hind  quarters 
formed  from  the 
solid  plank.  The 
front  portion  Avas 
closed  by  a  door 
attached  to  a  bar 
under  the  roof  by 
means  of  three 
hinges  so  contrived 
Jenny  lind.  that  when  desirable 

this  front  was  swung  up  on  the  inside  and  secured  to  the  imder  side 
of  the  roof  by  a  catch.  Thus  raised  in  fine  weather,  the  man  of  physic 
had  an  unobstructed  view  in  front ;  but  with  this  door  closed  and  the 
side  curtains  down,  he  was  able  to  defy  all  kinds  of  bad  air.  The 
Everett  coupling  applied  to  this 
vehicle  was  extremely  useful,  but 
the  trouble  occasioned  by  the  legal 
proceedings  previously  described 
was  fatal  to  the  improvement.  And 
here  Ave  may  note,  that  in  order  to 
destroy  the  value  of  any  invention, 
let  the  inventor  give  the  carriage- 
builder  summons  to  a  hiAv  court,  and 
he  Avill  immediately  cry  it  doAvn, 
advising  his   customers  to  leave  it  physician's  puaeton. 

alone  if  they  Avould  avoid  the  same  trouble. 

The   next   design   represents   that   which   may   with   propriety  be 


SQUARE  BUGGY  AND  BO  AD  SULKY. 


453 


denominated  the  standard  buggy,  the  square  form  mider  different  trim- 
mings having  always  met  with  favor  among  the  American  people. 
Strenuous  efforts  at  popularizing  other  fashions  of  the  buggy  kind 
have  been  made,  as  will  be  shown  in  the  course  of  this  chapter,  and 
yet  with  a  few  exceptions  they  have  lost  caste  with  the  close  of  the  year 
annually.  The  dis- 
tino-uishino;  traits  in 
this  buggy  are  the 
oval  moldings  of 
split  rattan  on  the 
side  panels,  and  a 
plaided  leather 
boot  covering  the 
space  around  and 
below  the  seat. 

About  this  time 
(1855)  one  Sprout, 
ofHughesville,Pa.,  square  buggy. 

obtained  the  patent  for  a  combined  spring,  some  idea  of  which  may  be 
learned  from  examining  the  road  sulky  to  Avhich  we  have  applied  it. 
A  Western  editor,  led  astray  by  money  potency,  informs  us  that  "  the 
easy  motion  and  1)racing  position  of  this  spring  is  peculiarly  adapted 
to  vehicles  of  this  denomination.  No  sensible  man  will  ever  be  satis- 
fied with  an  elliptic  spring  for  a  sulky  after  he  has  rode  on  one  of 
these."  As  elliptical  springs  still  maintain  their  former  popularity, 
the  inferences  are  that  they  are  either  the  best  in  use,  or  else  mankind 

are  generally  in  a 
demented  state  of 
mind !  The  wheel 
is  known  as  Oliver's 
patent.  Of  it  the 
"  Scientific  Ameri- 
can" said,  "The  im- 

provement    consists 

in  the  peculiar  con- 
struction of  the  wheel,  whereby  light  or  small  hubs  may  be  used,  and 
a  more  durable  and  stronger  wheel  made  than  the  ones  now  in  use." 
A  more  reckless  recommendation  was  never  penned.     This  wheel  was 


Load    S  u  i.  k  y 


454 


AMEBICAJSr  WOBLD   OW   WHEELS. 


not  only  very  weak,  but  heavy,  as  compared  with  the  old,  as  any 
practical  builder  would  discover  on  sight.     It  soon  fell  into  disuse. 

On  page  333  reference  has  been  made  to  the  complex  axle  and  box 
invented  by  Collinge  in  England.  In  America,  as  a  substitute,  Wil- 
liam H.  Saunders  introduced  the  mail  axle,  for  a  long  time  popular 
with  American  carriage-builders.  In  large  hubs  it  answered  an  excel- 
lent purpose,  as,  like  the  Collinge,  it  was  air-tight  and  noiseless, 
excluding  dust,  and  preserving  the  oil  lubricator  in  its  fluid  state  for 
a  long  time,  but  it  was  unsuited  to  the  small  hubs  used  in  the  lighter 
,-—_--— --.^  American    car- 

(,  t;:;:::r]  riages.      To  ob- 

■^mL^-  viate  this  defect 

the  author  of 
this  volume, 
then  in  the 
trade,  in  1856 
invented  the  im- 
prove m  ents 
shown  in  the 
TRATTON's  Patent  maii,-axi.e.  anilcxed      dia- 

grams. The  first  represents  a  longitudinally  divided  section  of  the 
hub  and  axle,  a  representing  the  axle  ;  b,  b,  the  box ;  c,  c,  the  hub ; 
d,  1,  1,  oil-chanil)ers ;  0",  i&^  axia  shoulders;/,/,  collar-plate;  g,  g, 
l)olts;  h,  h,  nuts;  2,  3,  leather-washers  on  each  side  of  the  shoulder. 
By  running  the  bolts  in  grooves  made  in 
the  swell  of  the  box,  the  flange  was  re- 
duced in  diameter,  and  a  guide  was  ob- 
tained for  boring  the  holes  for  bolts,  the 
bolts  inserted  answerino;  as  wedges  to  the 
box.  This  invention,  which  Mr.  Saun- 
ders pronounced  an  important  improve- 
ment, was  soon  after  superseded  by  the 
plain  axle  and  nut  at  the  outer  end,  sim- 
ply because  the  stable-men,  for  lack  of 
care  in  screwing  up  the  nuts,  stripped  mail-axle  collar-plate. 
the  thread  from  the  bolts,  rendering  patent  axles  too  expensive  a 
luxury  for  daily  use.  In  heavier  carriages,  less  used,  they  still  main- 
tain their  popularity  to  a  limited  extent. 


CONCOBD  AND  NEW  BOCJIELLE   WAGONS. 


45/3 


A  wagon  which  for  a  long  time  has  been  and  still  is  a  favorite  with 
many,  is  represented  by  the  next  figure.  It  is  called  the  Concord 
wagon,  in  honor  of  the  town  in  New  Hampshire  where  it  originated. 
The  body  differs  but  little  from  the 
ordinary  country  wagons  formerly 
used  in  New  England,  as  may  be 
seen  by  comparing  it  with  the  wagon 
on  page  422.  The  peculiarity  con- 
sists in  the  arrangement  of  the 
springs,  which  extend  from  the  fore 
to  the  hind  axles,  the  ends  being  concord  wagon. 

secured  thereto  by  shackles  which  allow  of  free  action  under  pressure. 
Some  persons  claim  that  they  are  capable  of  carrying  either  a  light  or 
heavy  load  with  equal  ease  and  comfort. 

Another  wagon  of  the  cheaper  class  is  represented  below.  It  is 
known  as  the  JSTew  Rochelle,  after  a  town  in  Westchester  County,  New 
York,  originating  somewhere  about  the  year  1858.     Originally  it  was 

hung  off  Avithout 
springs,  but  in  later 
times  these  have  gen- 
erally been  added. 
The  year  1857  was 
what  is  known  as  a 
year  of  panic,  many 
of  the  most  business- 
like and  enterprising 
men  having  been 
brought  to  poverty. 
To  meet  this  state 
of  affairs  this  vehicle  "was  brought  out,"  and  became  quite  popular. 

The  first  design  on  next  page  represents  the  Fenton  Rockaway,  thus 
named  in  compliment  to  one  of  the  governors  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  This  vehicle,  having  no  door  in  the  side  quarter,  is  furnished 
with  a  turn-over  seat  in  front,  to  facilitate  the  entrance  of  such  passen- 
gers as  intend  to.  occupy  the  back  seat.  One  horse  is  capable  of 
drawing  a  vehicle  of  this  weight,  constructed  with  curtains  for  the 
sides,  l>ut  two  are  frequently  employed  where  show  is  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal objects. 


New  Rociielle  Wagon. 


456 


AMEBIGAlSr  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


The  second  figure  on  this  page  represents  a  two-wheeled  pony  cart^ 
intended  for  a  light  horse.     It  was  at  one  time  a  very  popular  vehicle 

with  the  ladies  at  New- 
port, R.  I.,  and  other 
watering  -  places.  We 
have  on  former  occasions, 
when  it  was  fashionable, 
seen  it  running  in  the 
Central  Park.  As  will 
be  observed,  the  axle- 
tree  operates  through  the 
body,  by  which  contriv- 
ance it  is  made  to  hang 
very  low,  consequently 
it   is   not    easily    upset. 

Fen  TON  Rock  AW  AY.  ^l^jg^  like  all   other   two- 

wheeled  vehicles,  was  hard  for  the  horse,  too  much  weight  being  laid 
upon  his  back,  when  loaded.     The  ponij  phaeton  has  supplanted  it. 

A  pony  phae- 
ton of  the  most 
aristocratic  de- 
scription is  shown 
below,  having  a 
servant's  seat  be- 
hind ,  the  seat  and  pont  cart. 

larger  portion  of  the  body  consisting  of  basket-work.     Although  a 
very  popular  vehicle  with  the  ladies  at  our  summer  watering-places, 

it  is  not  American  other 
than  l)y  adoption,  having 
originated  in  France.  How 
much  American  ingenuity 
has  improved  the  Euro- 
pean design  may  be  learned 
by  comparing  it  with  the 
same  in  the  chapter  de- 
PoNT  Phaeton.  votcd  to  French  art.     An 

enthusiast,  in  noticing  these  phaetons,  in  a  letter  from  Newport,  says, 
"The  ladies' turnouts  this  year  are  very  graceful  and  pretty.     .     .     . 


BOAD  BUGGY  AND   SIX-SEAT  BOCKAWAT. 


457 


The  lady  handles  the  ribbons,  gentlemen  being  mere  j^assengers,  and 
idle  Jehus  sit  with  folded  arms  behind."  It  has  been  estimated  in 
former  years  that  more  than  eight  hundred  turnouts  have  been  in  use 
annually  at  Newport.  More  recently  Long  Branch  and  other  summer 
watering-places  have  lessened  the  number.  A  Boston  lady  has  pro- 
nounced the  drivers,  whether  women  or  men,  witless  snobs. 

The  next  is  known  as  the  gentleman's  road  buggy.  It  was  intro- 
duced by  Messrs.  Brewster  &  Co.  in  1863.  Contemporaries  in  the 
trade,  from  jealous 
motives,  called  it  a 
"  coal-box,"  a  name 
by  which  it  is  still 
specified.  It  took 
two  entire  seasons 
to  popularize  it,  but 
when  it  did  take,  it 
took  well.  The  or- 
namental figure  cut 

in    the     side      panel  Gentleman's   Road   Buggy. 

originated  with  the  Wood  Brothers.     This  scroll,  in  gold  on  a  black 

ground,  looked  well,  and  made  a  very  pretty  ornament.     They  cost 

about  three  hundred  dollars. 

The  next  figure  represents  a  six-seat  RocTcaioay,  quite  popular  as  a 

family  carriage,  where  paterfamilias  elects  to  act  the  part  of  driver 

in  person.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  certain  aristocratic 
American  ladies,  an  im- 
ported "  whip  "  is  very  ob- 
noxious when  "  stuck  "  in 
front  of  a  vehicle.  To 
meet  such  cases  a  movable 
glass  partition  is  used  to 
divide  the  front  seat,  and 
leave  the  driver  "  out  in 
the  cold."  These  vehicles 
are  frequently  mounted  on 

platform  springs,  but  when  finished  as  in  our  example  are  less  costly. 
We  now  come  to  the  American  Clarence  coach,  with  a  rounding 


AT     ROCKAVAY. 


458 


AMEBIC  AN  WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 


front,  metropolitan  boot,  and  coupe  front-pillar.  The  boot  is  under- 
stood to  be  the  invention  of  the  late  ]\Ir.  F.  E,  Wood,  of  Bridgeport, 
Conn.  The  Berlin-shaped  window  in  the  hind-quarter  was  at  one  time 
very  popular.  This  vehicle  being  mounted  on  platform  springs,  with- 
out a  perch,  it  may  be 
turned  about  within  the 
compass  of  its  length,  — 
a  very  desirable  conven- 
ience when  the  coach  is 
used  in  narrow  streets. 

At  the  period  of  which 
we  write  (1863) ,  in  New 
York  City  alone,  there 

American  Clarence.  WCre  about   13,562  Vehi- 

cles of  all  kinds.  Of  these,  5,000  were  private  carriages  and  wagons, 
558  omnibuses,  954  hackney-coaches  and  coupes,  255  express-wagons, 
416  wood  and  charcoal  wagons,  278  junk-carts,  5,374  public  carts,  and 
724  dirt-carts,  besides  an  uncounted  number  of  hand-carts  and  other 
business  contrivances  mounted  upon  wheels.  Add  to  these  the  baby- 
wagons,  and  we  have  a  perfect  list. 

This  same  year  a  law  passed  by  Congress  —  with  the  object  of 
obtaining  the  means  wherewith  to  put  down  the  Rebellion  in  the  South 
—  came  into  effect,  compelling  all  manufacturers  to  report  and  pay 
into  the  treasury  three  per  cent  ad  valorem  monthly  on  all  now  work. 
In  the  construction  of  carriages,  many  articles  which  had  already  i:)aid 
a  tax  were  used,  making  the  actual  tax  to  the  manufacturer  amount  to 
fully  five  per  cent.  This  novelty  in  legislative  action  was  the  cause 
of  loud  complaint  on  the  part 
of  the  public,  since  it  entailed 
great  expense  upon  all  who 
indulged  in  such  luxuries  as 
carriages  and  some  other  in- 
dustries. 

The  figure  annexed  repre- 
sents a  four-passenger  exten- 
sion-top ca])riolet,  mounted 
upon  elliptical  springs  in  con- 
nection with   a  reach.      Al- 

Cabriolet. 


CONOBESSIONAL   TAX  OTf  CABBIAOES.  459 

thougli  of  European  origin,  this  cabriolet  has  some  improvements 
decidedly  American,  such  as  the  extension  top,  etc.  For  a  light  and 
airy  family  carriage  for  persons  of  modest  means,  this  is  well  fitted, 
five  or  six  hundred  dollars  only  being  required  for  the  purchase. 

The  next  illustration  represents  a  cdleche^  by  some  improperly  called 
a  "  brett,"  the  diminutive  of  "  britzscha."  This  vehicle  is  mounted  on 
combined  springs,  C  and  elliptical.  For  summer  service  when  first 
introduced  this  vehi- 
cle presented  advan- 
tages unsurpassed  by 
any  other  in  America, 
but  since  that  time  it 
has  to  a  great  extent 
been  supplanted  by 
the  more  aristocratic 

landau .    The  reader's  American  c  alec  he. 

attention  is  directed  to  the  style  of  the  boot,  that  portion  of  the  front 
directly  under  the  driver's  seat,  which  is  a  combination  of  the  old  one  of 
previous  years  and  the  metropolitan,  as  represented  on  page  opposite. 
The  combination  of  springs  in  this  carriage  is  termed  "  double  suspen- 
sion" by  the  trade.  The  first  carriage  hung  up  in  this  country  as 
above,  without  a  reach,  was  built  in  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  by  the  "Wood 
Brothers,  in  the  autumn  of  1857,  after  a  European  design. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  1864,  Congress  passed  an  Act  assessing  the 
gross  receipts  earned  by  the  proprietors  of  stage-coaches  and  other 
vehicles  engaged  in  the  transportation  of  passengers  and  property  for 
hire,  or  in  transporting  the  mails  of  the  United  States,  a  duty  of  two 
and  one  half  per  cent,  payable  monthly  to  the  assessor  of  the  district 
in  which  the  business  was  transacted.  Contrary  to  the  expectations 
of  all,  none  of  the  taxes  laid  on  carriages  or  their  use  seemingly  injured 
trade,  but  otherwise  unexpectedly  gave  it  life  such  as  it  had  never  had 
before.  In  the  New  England  States  alone,  where  in  1859  there  were 
only  1,564  shops,  these  in  1864  had  increased  to  1,649,  showing  that, 
although  deprived  of  the  Southern  trade,  other  markets  had  been  found 
for  the  encouragement  of  enterprise,  more  than  equalled  by  that  lost 
by  the  Rebellion. 

The  circidar  carriage-drive  around  the  Central  Park  was  completed 
in  1864.     This  drive  furnished   New-Yorkers  with  a  fine  road  amid 


460 


AMERICAN'  WORLD    ON    WHEELS. 


diversified  scenery  unsurpassed  anywhere.  At  this  time  the  Rockaway, 
before  noticed  as  a  simple  wagon,  had  become  the  elegant  vehicle 

illustrated  here, 
which  for  a  family 
carriage,  purely 
American,  has  sel- 
dom been  excelled. 
Cut-imder  as  this 
is,  and  mounted 
upon  platform 
springs,  it  not  only 
is  turned  about  with 
facility,  but  is  like- 
wise an  easy-riding 

Cut-under   RocKAArAT.  Carriage,    wllilst    at 

the  same  time  the  passengers,  six  in  number,  are  sheltered  from  sun 
and  storm  quite  efiectually  with  the  side  curtains  down  and  the  glass 
partition  on  the  front  seat  in  its  place. 

The  omnibus,  which  we  have  chronicled  as  having  been  introduced 
into  this  country 
in  1831,  had 
now,  at  the  end  of 
thirty-four  years, 
assumed  the  form 
represented  in 
the  annexed  en- 
graving, chiefly 
the  work  of  John 
S  t  e  13  h  e  n  s  o  n , 
Esq.,  who  for 
many  years  has 
been  the  only 
builder   in   New 

York  City.    The  modern  omnibds. 

improvements  made  in  these  vehicles  by  Mr.  Stephenson  have  been 
numerous,  and  the  faithfulness  with  which  they  are  constructed  has 
given  the  manufixcturer  a  world-wide  reputation  in  this  special  depart- 
ment of  trade. 


i 


GIO  AND   CANOE  PHAETONS. 


461 


used  buggies  as 


The  next  illustration  represents  a  gig  phaeton,  which  for  many  years 
has  been  a  favorite  with  American  physicians  and  business-men  in  the 
larger  cities.  Eecently  some  of  the  doctors  li.iM 
being  somewhat  lighter;  l)ut  these 
have  not  been  found  as  convenient, 
either  when  mounting  or  dismount- 
ing, as  the  discarded  phaeton.  Un- 
til something  better  than  the  phae- 
ton is  found,  it  must  continue  to  be 
a  favorite  among  the  men  of  pills 
and  other  prescriptions.  In  this 
year  (1867)  the  joints  of  carriage 
tops,  which  previously  were  curved, 
were  put  on  straight,  as  in  our  illus- 
tration :  a  small  matter,  some  may  gig  phaeton. 
think,  but  an  important  one  notwithstanding,  when  its  efficiency  over 
the  old  one  is  considered. 

During  the  year  a  distinguished  Boston  surgeon  invented  and  ordered 
built  for  his  own  use  a  vehicle  which  a  friend  describes  as  a  sort  of 
chaise,  with  wheels  five  feet  in  diameter,  cranked  axle,  thorough- 
braces,  and  wooden  springs,  strapped  to  the  shafts  in  a  novel  manner. 
The  body,  a  sort  of  buggy  kind,  was  fitted  with  a  top,  having  a  place 
for  professional  instruments  made  at  the  back.  The  learned  doctor 
called  it  a  monalos,  from  a  Greek  word  signifying  "alone,"  as  it  was 
of  the  sulky  class,  intended  for  one  passenger  only. 

The  next  engraving  represents  a  canoe  phaeton,  and  difiers  in  some 

respects  from  any 
other  found  in 
this  volume,  in 
fact,  l^eing  a  com- 
bination of  the 
brett  and  phae- 
ton. This  in  its 
day  was  a  great  fa- 
vorite with  New- 
Yorkers  in  their 

Canoe    Phaeton.  afternOOU  visitS  to 

the  Central  Park,  until  another  candidate  for  favor  appeared  in  our 


462 


AMEBIC  AN  WORLD    ON  WHEELS. 


streets.  This  was  the  demi-landau,  represented  with  the  head  down 
and  the  circular  glass  front  removed.  This  carriage  is  much  lighter 
than  a  landau,  and  has  many  decided  advantages  over  the  coupe,  one 

of  which  is  that 
it  is  more  airy. 
There  is,  howev- 
er, this  objection 
to  all  heads  cov- 
ered with  leather, 
that  when  they 
get  a  little  in 
years,  just  like 
Demi-landau.  the  human  fami  ly , 

they  become  wrinkled  beyond  relief,  —  a  general  complaint  with  all  tops 
supported  by  bows.  At  the  time  of  which  we  write  this  demi-landau 
is  the  favorite  among  "upper-tendom." 

The  next  drawing  represents  a  vehicle,  which  Ave  have  said  origi- 
nated in  France.  The  word  "coupe"  French  scholars  interpret  as  signi- 
fying "to  cut  in  two,"  or  be  separated,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  head 
of  the  wasp  is  joined  to  the 
body  by  a  ligature.  The 
portion  which  gave  rise  to 
the  name  is  that  which  con- 
nects the  front  seat  and  boot 
to  the  main  portion  of  the 
body.  The  features  of  note 
in  this  example  are  the  light- 
ness   in    the    boot    and   the 

straight  lines  with  which  it  is  circular-front  coupfi. 

constructed.  Coupes  are  special  favorites  with  American  ladies  in 
their  shopping  expeditions  and  social  calls  upon  their  female  acquaint- 
ance. The  scroll  platform-spring  at  the  rear,  of  which  an  enlarged 
view  is  given  on  next  page,  possesses,  when  shaped  as  here  shown, 
the  qualities  of  douljle-action,  having  the  full  advantages  of  a  length- 
ened upper  half,  which  to  properly  act  should  ])e  connected  with  the 
pump-handle  by  a  knuckle-joint,  instead  of  the  old  frame-work  usually 
employed.  For  coupes  and  the  lighter  class  of  carriages  this  makes  a 
graceful  and  easy-riding  spring. 


I 


COUPE-BOCKAWAT  AND  CLABENCE. 


4G3 


The  second  illustratioii  on  this  page  represents  a  six-passenger  Rock 
away,  with  conpe 
standing  pillar, 
glass-front  quar- 
ter, and  hook- 
step.  It  is  con- 
structed hy  com- 
bining the  coupe 
and  Rockaway, — 
the  hack  being 
coupe,  the  front 
Rockaway,  —  the 
combination  cre- 
ating   a   novelty, 

W h i C h      first     ap-  improved    Scuoll-spring. 

peared  in  the  "New  York  Coach-maker's  Magazine,"  published  by  the 
author  in  1866,  during  our  Civil  War.  It  makes  a  more  aristocratic 
carriage,   and   a  far  more   convenient   conveyance  for  the  family  in 

frosty  weather ;  be- 
sides, the  owner  may 
drive,  with  a  greater 
show  of  respectability 
than  he  could  if 
perched  on  a  dickey- 
seat. 

The  th'ee  -  quarter 
Clarence  is  represent- 
ed in  the  first  illus- 
tration on  next  page. 
This,  too,  is  suspended 
Six. SEAT  coupfi-RocKAWAT.  oil  springs  in  combi- 

l)ination,  a  ncAV  feature  being  the  oblong  window  in  the  hind-quarter. 
The  improvements  of  the  past  four  years  may  be  seen  by  comparing 
this  with  the  cut-under  Rockaway  (page  460).  The  slightly  curved 
line  at  the  back  pillar  adds  much  to  the  gracefulness  of  the  vehicle. 
The  diagram  on  next  page  shows  how  to  construct  the  frame-work  on 
which  the  C-spring  of  the  three-quarter  Clarence  rests,  the  same  being 
a  bird's-eye  view  ;  A,  A,  representing  the  foot  of  the  C,  and  B,  B,  the 


4:64: 


AMEBICAN  WOBLD    OJ^   WHEELS. 


Three-quarter  Clarence 


apj)eared,  so  greatly  have  they 


middle  portion  of  the 
elliptical  springs, 
broken  at  both  ends. 

Several  designs,  all 
different,  of  buggies 
have  already  been  pre- 
sented in  this  volume, 
and  still  we  have 
scarcely  kept  up  with 
the  changes  in  the 
fashions  as  they  have 
multiplied  in  late  years.     Two  kinds 


are  here  presented.  The  first  is  called  by  the  builder  the  Bonner 
buggy,  in 
0  o  mpli- 
menttothe 
editor  of 
the  "New 
York  Led- 
ger," who 
had  it  made 
to  order, 
with  the 
Brewster 

patent  Ver-  frame-work   of   hind   carriage-part. 

tical  steel  plates  inserted  in  the  axle-beds,  whereby  the  inventor  claims 

he  is  al:)le  to  make  a 
lio^hter-lookins:  bus:- 
gj,  with  unequaled 
strength.  The  "Bon- 
ner style  "  consists 
in  giving  the  sides 
and  ends  of  the  body 
more  "  flare  "  than 
usual,  in  conformity 
with    the    wish    and 

Bonner   Buggy.  tastc  of  the  editor. 

There  are  some  things  which  never  become  unfashionable,  and  the 


TOP  BUGGY  AND  AMEBIC  AN  LANDAU. 


4G5 


Top  Bugg^ 


remark  is  true  when  applied  to  the  next  buggy,  this  class  of  vehicles 
having  been  standard  for  more  than  thirty  years.  During  the  time, 
the  ribbed,  the  Stanhope,  the  Jenny  Lhid,  the  coal-box,  and  many 
others  with  varied  names  have  appeared,  l)ut  none  of  them  have 
retained  the  popu- 
larity accorded  the 
square-box ;  and  to- 
day, should  we  order 
a  buggy  for  life  use, 
a  vehicle  of  this  de- 
scription would  be 
selected,  with  the 
certainty  that  we 
should  always  have  a 
respectable  turnout 
for  the  road  as  long 
as  it  would  last. 

Within  the  past  five  years  great  improvements  have  been  made  in 
the  construction  of  landaus.  Some  of  these  we  have  tardily  adopted, 
in  consequence  of  the  limited  demand  for  this  expensive  carriage  in 
America  prior  to  18G0.  Since  that  time,  with  our  accustomed  dili- 
gence, we  have  studied  to  make  the  landau,  in  conformity  with  light- 
ness, as  in  oth- 
er carriages,  a 
popular  vehi- 
cle. Besides, 
we  have  made 
some  striking 
changes,  one  of 
which  is  the 
arrangement  of 
the  door  above 

American   Landau. i  the  belt-rail,  by 

which  means  the  glass  window  is  protected  when  lowered  and  sup- 
ported when  raised,  the  invention  of  Mr.  F.  R.  Wood,  on  which  his  heirs 
hold  a  patent. 

•  For  this  eugraving,  iiiid  some  twelve  more  preceding  it,  we  are  indebted  to  the 
kindness  of  James  B.  Brewster,  Esq.,  New  York. 


466 


AMEBICAN  WORLD  Olf  WHEELS. 


In  1868  a  German  invention  known  as  the  velocipede,  from  the  Latm 
velox,  swift,  undpes,  the  foot,  came  into  extensive  use  in  the  United 
States,  under  different  forms,  the  most  popular  of  which  is  represented 

in  the  an- 
nexed en- 
graving. 
The  origi- 
nal, which 
dates  from 
the  begin- 
ning of  the 
nineteenth 
century,  is 
the  reputed 
invention 
of  one  Bar- 
on  Drais 
de  Saver- 
brun,inthc 

American   Vei-ocipede.  SCrvice     of 

the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  who  died  in  1851.  It  appeared  in  the 
garden  of  the  Tivoli,  Paris,  in  1816  ;  in  England,  under  the  name  of 
Drasina,  in  1818.  In  1821,  Lewis  Gompertz,  of  Surrey,  made  some 
improvements  in  the 
drasina,  which  are 
shown  in  the  engrav- 
ing. This  machine  was 
made  to  turn  by  a  lever 
in  front,  as  has  been 
the  practice  since.  It 
was  furnished  with  a 
handle,  to  be  worked 
backwards  and  for- 
wards by  a  circular 
ratchet  Avorki  ng  on  a 
pinion  with  a  cog- 
wheel attached  to  the  front  wheel  of  the  velocipede,  as  shown  in  the 
engraving.     Supported  by  the  cushioned  rest  while  sitting  on  the  sad- 


Go  m  pert  z's  Drasina. 


AMEBIC  AN  CAERIAGE   TRADE  STATISTICS.  467 

die,  the  rider  pulled  at  the  levers  with  both  hands,  sending  the  machine 
on  its  way.  When  thrust  from  him,  the  ratch  prevented  its  return 
before  the  rotation  of  the  wheel  set  it  free.  The  beam  connectinof  the 
two  wheels  on  which  the  saddle  rests  was  wood.  Although  clumsily 
made,  it  had  a  brief  hour  of  popularity,  as  all  such  boyish  inventions 
must  have,  until  human  nature  undergoes  a  change. 

The  Hon.  C.  P.  Kimball,  in  an  address  before  the  Carriage-Builders' 
National  Association  (at  the  time  of  its  organization,  Nov.  19,  1872), 
presented  the  following  facts:  "In  1870  there  were  11,944  establish- 
ments in  the  United  States,  employing  65,294  persons,  paying  out 
$21,834,355  for  labor,  and  producing  about  800,000  carriages,  amount- 
ing to  $67,406,548.  It  is  now  estimated  that  we  have  built,  during 
the  past  year,  about  1,000,000  carriages,  employing  some  75,000  per- 
sons, and  that  the  total  amount  of  the  production  cannot  be  much  short 
of  $100,000,000.  This  makes  one  carriage  to  every  forty  persons  in 
the  United  States,  to  say  nothing  of  sleighs  of  various  kinds,  of  which 
I  have  no  positive  data ;  but  it  is  safe  to  say  they  can  be  reckoned  by 
tens  of  thousands.  This,  you  will  bear  in  mind,  does  not  mclude  the 
extensive  manufacture  of  axles,  springs,  wheels,  bows,  joints,  bolts, 
clips,  leather,  cloth,  and  the  thousands  of  articles  made  in  parts,  that 
are  now  purchased  in  a  partly  finished  state  by  many  manufacturers, 
that  must  of  course  employ  many  thousands  of  men.  This  shows  con- 
clusively that  we  are  entitled  to  be  rated  as  one  of  the  great  manufac- 
turing industries  of  the  country. 

"  This  wonderful  increase  of  production  is  being  seriously  felt  by 
most  makers.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  danger  of  over- 
producing. New  labor-saving  machines  of  all  kinds  have  been  intro- 
duced, and  every  aid  science  and  ingenuity  can  invent  brought  into 
requisition.  The  labor  of  days  is  crowded  into  hours ;  from  early 
morn  until  late  at  night  we  are  busy  in  producing.  We  are  also  great 
consumers,  but  in  this  increase  of  capital  and  facilities  there  is  a  possi- 
bility of  overdoing  the  business,  producing  more  than  we  can  possibly 
consume.  There  arc  now  many  shops  that  produce  in  seven  or  eight 
months  all  the}^  can  sell  in  the  year,  leaving  mon,  during  four  or  five 
months,  out  of  employment  and  out  of  money.  This  state  of  things 
cannot  continue  long  without  serious  disaster  to  the  trade." 


468 


iSUPPLi:MENTAL    WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    world's    exhibit    OF   VEHICULAli   ART. 


"  This  age  is  a  babe  tliat  goes  in  a  cradle  on  wheels,  and  no  longer  in  one  on 
rockers." 

Joseph  Cook,  Prelude  to  a  Lecture. 


UR  Centennial  year  —  the  one  in  which 
the  people  of  the  United  States  cele- 
brated its  one  hundredth  year  of  exist- 
ence as  a  free  and  independent  Repub- 
lic—  has  presented  us  with  a  favorable 
opportunity  for  exhibiting  the  progress 
of  vehicular  ai-t  among  the  more  ad- 
vanced nations  of  modern  times.     Some  of  the  contribu- 
tors to  the  carriage  department  are  known  at  home  as 
leaders  in  the  trade,  and  therefore  it  is  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  in  this  display  we  have  the  finest  collection  of 
vehicles  the  Old  World  is  able  to  produce.     How  these 
compare  with  American   carriages  will  be  seen  in  the 
course  of  this  chapter. 

Visitors  to  the  Centennial  grounds  must  have  discov- 
ered that  besides  those  placed  in  the  Carriage  Annex, 
other  carriages  were  shown  in  the  Main  Exhibition 
in  the  center  of  the  French  department,  the  prod- 
ucts of  la  belle  France,  sent  by  five  different  firms.  These,  although 
loss  showy  than  some  others,  were  rich  in  outline  and  finish,  showing 
superior  taste  and  workmanship.  Among  these  indisputably  Messrs. 
INIillion,  Guiet  et  Cie,  56  and  58  Avenue  Montaigne,  Paris,  occupied 
the  first  rank,  but  their  carriages  could  not  enter  into  competition  in 
consequence  of  ]M.  Guiet,  a  member  of  the  firm,  having  been  chosen 
one  of  the  jurors.  The  contributions  from  this  house  were  seven,  — an 
eight-spring  landau,  of  which  an  illustration  is  annexed,  a  drag,  a 
canoe-shaped  landau,  vis-a-vis,  a  coupe,  mylord,  and  an  eight-spring 


building,  standin 


CARBIAGES   OF  FBENCII  MANUFACTUBE. 


469 


Yictoria.  The  Ijindaii,  mounted  on  eight  springs,  was  one  of  the  most 
attractive  vehicles  in  the  entire  collection,  known  to  the  trade  as 
"  double-suspension."  When  the  top  is  raised  the  passenger  is  well 
protected  from  the  weather ;  when  it  is  down,  he  has  an  elegant  and 


Million,   Guiet   &  Co.'s  Eight. spuing  Landau. 

graceful  carriage  for  pleasant-weather  drive.  In  this  respect  the  car- 
riage under  consideration  has  never  been  surpassed  if  equaled.  It  is 
charged  by  the  English  that  the  French  put  too  much  iron  in  their 
carriages,  especially  inside  the  bodies,  in  order  to  make  them  look 
light,  when  in  fact,  if  weighed,  they  would  be  found  heavier  than 
those  of  their  neighbors  ;  and  that  they  copy  too  much  the  English,  — 
a  charge  they  likewise  bring  against  us. 

The  "New  York  Herald"  thus  noticed  the  remainder  of  the  carriages  of 
this  house  :  "A  square-fronted  landau  Clarence,  trimmed  in  rich  brown, 
with  seats  that  can  be  raised  at  pleasure,  is  a  marvel  of  fine  finish  and 
strength.  As  a  closed  carriage,  with  its  square  foot  of  beveled  glass 
plates,  it  looks  a  fairy  palace  on  wheels.  A  double-suspension  vis-a- 
vis is  a  miracle  of  grace  and  sober  elegance.  It  is  painted  in  dark 
imperial  green,  with  black  stripes  and  a  yellow  hair-line,  cushioned  in 
dark  green  morocco,  and  trimmed  with  dark  green  cloth.  An  eight- 
spring  due,  with  a  rumble,  is  a  very  stylish  and  elegant  park  carriage. 
The  driver's  seat  is  removable,  so  that  the  ribbons  can  be  handled  from 


the  inside.     It  is  trimmed  and  painted  in  dark 


A  mylord  cab- 


riolet, in  brown  and  black,  is  a  charming  light,  open  carriage.  It  pos- 
sesses a  novel  feature  in  a  sliding  cane  seat  for  children,  or,  at  a  pinch, 
those  of  a  larger  growth.     The  gem  of  the  exhibition,  certainly  for 


470  SUPPLEMENTAL    WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

ladies,  is  a  coupe  brougham  in  black,  with  a  narrow  yellow  stripe, 
trimmed  in  Havana  brown  satin.  Here  French  taste  and  ingenuity  are 
displayed  in  the  elegant  details  which  minister  to  the  comfort  or  con- 
venience of  the  occupant.  The  drag  or  mail-coach  exhibited  by  this 
firm  is  a  splendid  piece  of  workmanship.  To  the  English  must  be  given 
the  credit  of  pioneering  the  refinement  of  the  old  mail-coach  into  the 
modern  ijcntleman's  dras; ;  but  there  is  no  Ens^lish  work  of  this  kind 
in  the  entire  exhibition  that  at  all  approaches  the  drag  of  Million,  Guiet 
&  Co.  It  is  as  stanch,  massive,  and  firm  as  the  best  English  work,  but 
in  finish,  equipment,  and  completeness  and  ingenuity  of  detail,  it  is 
ahead  of  everything  English.  The  body  is  black,  and  the  wheels  and 
running  gear  a  brilliant  red.  The  inside  is  upholstered  in  dark  green 
cloth  and  morocco.  Outside  the  trimminsr  and  seatins;  are  of  hoo:-skin, 
which  has  durability  and  color  to  recommend  it.  Every  space  in  the 
carriage  available  for  stowage  has  been  made  use  of,  and  so  artistically 
has  it  been  done  that  the  drag  might  be  provisioned  for  a  three  days' 
cruise  without  showing  a  basket.  It  is  filled  with  brakes  before  and 
behind.  Even  the  lamps  are  marvels  of  good  workmanship.  Alto- 
gether the  display  is  a  credit,  in  the  highest  degree,  to  the  firm." 

Desouches,  40  Avenue  des  Champs  Elysees,  likewise  exhibited  seven 
vehicles,  —  one  landau,  one  vis-a-vis,  one  cabriolet,  two  coupes,  and  two 
phaetons,  one  of  which  was  a  mail  phaeton.  It  is  thus  noticed  m  "The 
Hub  "  :  "  This  stylish  mail  phaeton  represents  a  recent  and  very  popu- 
lar pattern,  that  was  first  introduced  by  M.  Desouches,  at  the  Exhi- 
bition of  Marine  and  River  Industries,  held  last  fall  (1875)  in  Paris, 
where  it  was  greatly  admired,  and  several  duplicates  were  ordered.  It 
has  a  concave  and  cornered  front  seat,  and  the  sides  and  back  of  this 
seat  are  finished  in  imitation  of  cane-work,  with  black  vertical  mold- 
ings, placed  six  inches  apart,  as  shown  in  the  drawing.  .  .  .  The 
front  carriage-part  is  the  most  noticeable  feature  of  this  phaeton. 

The  next  is  Binder  Freres,  with  six  carriages,  viz.,  one  vis-a-vis, 
one  D'Orsay,  one  coupe,  one  caleche,  one  mylord,  and  a  break.  This 
vehicle  is  decidedly  the  best  constructed  we  have  ever  seen,  and  decid- 
edly creditable  to  the  Parisians,  with  whom  it  originated.  For  park  exer- 
cise, or  even  conveyance  of  passengers  to  railway  depots  in  fair  weather, 
nothing  can  exceed  it  for  convenience  and  comfort.  It  is  extremely 
popular  in  Paris,  where  a  trip  to  the  Bois  do  Bologne  in  one  is  a  pleas- 
ure long  to  be  remembered.     A  tail-board  lettins:  down  behind  fur- 


CARIilAGES   OF  ENGLISH  MANUFACTURE.  471 

iiishes  accommodation  for  servants,  and  a  brake,  the  machinery  of 
which  is  mostly  concealed,  serves  to  check  the  progress  of  the  vehicle 
in  descending  a  hill.  To  prevent  injuring  the  spring  when  pressure  is 
applied  to  the  wheel,  a  check-brace  is  attached  to  the  front  end  of  the 
spring,  and  carried  to  the  body  and  there  secured.  This  vehicle  is 
decidedly  French,  and  is  said  to  have  received  the  name  "  braeck"  m 
consequence  of  its  having  originally  been  used  for  breaking  young 
horses. 

M.  Miihlbacher,  of  63  Avenue  des  Champs  Elysees,  also  sent  to  the 
Exhibition  six  carriages,  —  two  vis-a-vis,  two  mylords,  a  coupe,  and  a 
D'Orsay.  This  completes  the  Parisian  list ;  but  to  these  may  be  added 
four  more  specimens  of  French  art,  supplied  by  M.  Gaudichet,  of  Vier- 
zon,  Cher.,  consisting  of  one  landau,  one  mail  phaeton,  and  two  tan- 
dem carts.  To  describe  these  in  detail  would  far  exceed  the  limits  of 
this  chapter. 

In  another  part  of  the  main  building  were  shown  four  Norwegian 
carioles,  and  an  ancient  sledge,  undoubtedly  sent  us  as  curiosities,  by 
Sorensen  &  Klovstad,  and  Chr.  Christiansen,  both  firms  of  Christiana, 
Norway.  The  cariole  having  already  been  noticed  in  these  pages,  we 
dismiss  these  vehicles  by  copying  Mr.  Christiansen's  note  attached  to 
the  sledge :  "This  sledge  was  made  in  one  of  the  mountain  districts  of 
Norway,  in  the  year  1625  ;  was  kept  in  one  family,  as  a  piece  of  antiq- 
uity, until  1870,  when  it  was  purchased  by  the  undersigned,  who,  in 
sending  it  over  to  the  Philadelphia  Exhibition,  hopes  it  may  aiford 
some  interest  to  the  public.  It  may  be  bought  for  sixty  Norwegian 
dollars." 

Having  "  done  "  the  main  building,  we  cross  the  avenue  in  a  north- 
erly direction,  and  enter  the  Carriage  Annex,  where  Ave  find  the  Eng- 
lish, American,  and  a  few  other  national  representative  carriages. 
The  English  carriages,  all  told,  amounted  to  thirty-six,  standing 
double  in  two  rows  in  the  southeasterly  corner  of  the  building.  On 
entering  the  main  door,  on  the  right  stood  the  carriages  of  Messrs. 
Peters  &  Sons,  53  Park  Street,  Grosvenor  Square,  London,  nine  in 
number,  viz.,  two  four-in-hand  coaches,  one  landau,  two  Broughams, 
one  Victoria,  one  T-cart,  one  Whitechapel  cart,  and  one  ladies'  phae- 
ton, of  which  last  an  illustration  is  given  on  next  page.  This  for  a 
phaeton  looks  unusually  heavy,  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  same 
kind  made  in  America,  but  is  unquestionably  the  finest  of  this  descrip- 


472 


SUPPLEMENTAL    WOBLD   ON  WHEELS. 


tion  ill  the  English  department,  having  been  built  to  order  for  the 
wife  of  Baron  Bramwell,  an  English  judge  of  some  celebrity.     The 

footman's 
seat  behind, 
in  skeleton, 
makes  the 
vehicle  look 
much  light- 
er than  it  is 
in  reality. 
As  may  be 
seen  in  the 
drawing, the 

phaeton  is  furnished  with  a  break, — a  novelty  in  this  description  of 
vehicle. 

Next,  moving  eastward,  we  find  Messrs.  Hooper  &  Co.,  of  60  Vic- 
toria Street,  London,  with  six  carriages,  viz.,  one  landau,  one  Brougham, 
one  park  phaeton,  one  ladies'  phaeton,  one  cabriolet,  and  a  drag,  the 
last  of  which  furnishes  us  with  an  illustration.     On  a  card  attached  the 


Sons'  Ladies'  Phaeton. 


Hooper  Ss  Co.'s  Drag. 


builders  tell  us,  "This  drag  is  of  the  pattern,  size,  and  construction 
approved  by  the  members  of  the  London  Four-in-hand  Club.  With 
lightness  it  combines  strength  and  solidity,  indispensable  to  the  safe 


HOOPER  AND   COMPANY'S  DRAG.  473 

use  of  such  carriages,  the  center  of  gravity  being  kept  low.  It  is  fitted 
with  the  lunch  or  picnic  arrangements  familiar  to  those  who  have  at- 
tended the  horse-races  of  Epsom,  Ascot,  or  Goodwood ;  the  cricket- 
matches —  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Eton,  or  Harrow  —  at  Lord's  cricket- 
ground  ;  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  boat-races,  or  any  of  the  outings 
from  large  country-houses  in  summer  and  autumn  in  England."  At 
present  it  is  very  popular  as  a  passenger-coach. 

We  are  told  by  Thomas  Magrath  that  "  the  coach-maker,  in  con- 
structing a  drag,  has  not  so  much  scope  for  his  ingenuity  as  he  has  in 
the  manufacture  of  other  carriages.  The  purchasers  of  drags  being  a 
select  class,  each  one  having  his  own  particular  fashion,  it  follows  that 
he  has  to  work  to  that  particular  style  which  his  customer  orders,  and 
can  only  introduce  such  improvements  in  its  fittings  and  appointments 
as  will  make  it  in  accordance  with  modern  taste,  without  materially 
altering  its  English  character."  To  an  American  it  seems  as  though  a 
vehicle  of  this  kind,  weighing  some  twenty  hundred  pounds,  was  heav- 
ier than  need  be.  As  there  is  an  increasing  demand  for  this  vehicle  in 
the  United  States,  we  shall  look  with  some  interest  for  a  reduction  in 
the  weig-ht,  amons:  American  builders. 

These  drags  in  England  are  principally  used  for  picnic  excursions, 
and  attendance  upon  the  races,  which  last  are  matters  of  deep  interest 
with  the  people.  A  brief  description  may  be  acceptable.  With  the 
furniture  complete,  a  drag  may  be  considered  as  a  very  respectable 
hotel  on  wheels,  and  is  capable  of  seating  fourteen  persons,  — four  on 
the  inside,  eight  on  the  top  or  roof,  and  two  grooms  on  the  back  seat. 
To  reach  the  top  a  ladder  is  provided  in  three  lengths,  hinged  so  as  to 
fold.  This,  when  not  in  use,  is  stowed  away  under  the  groom's  seat. 
Four  horses  are  required  to  move  the  vehicle,  and  to  provide  against 
delays  from  breakage,  two  sets  of  double  whippletrees  and  bars  always 
accompany  the  machine.  There  are  numerous  racks  on  the  inside  for 
books,  hats,  etc.,  and  handles  and  straps  on  the  outside  in  countless 
variety.  The  dignity  of  the  Jehu  is  promoted  by  adding  a  driver's 
box  and  cushion  to  the  dickey-seat. 

The  kitchen  furniture  of  a  drag  consists  of  a  lunch-box  full  of  tum- 
blers and  solid  provisions,  placed  on  the  central  portion  of  the  roof, 
and  for  an  additional  supply  of  food,  a  wicker  basket  under  the  boot, 
a  mahogany  box  of  knives  and  forks  stored  between  the  boot  and  front 
of  the  body,  and  an  ice-box.     The  doors  being  thrown  open,  a  table  is 


474  SUPPLEMENTAL   WOBLD  ON  WHEELS. 

improvised  by  laying  a  four-leaved  board,  joined  by  hinging,  on  the 
floor,  crosswise.  Two  massive  Argand  lamps,  fixed  in  front,  for  night 
travel,  complete  the  display.  The  whole  costs  about  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  guineas. 

To  even  name  all  the  carriages  in  the  Exhibition  would  swell  this 
chapter  to  a  tedious  length.  Beside  the  above,  Charles  Thorn,  of  Nor- 
wich, exhibited  eight  carriages ;  H.  Mulliner,  of  Leaming  Spa,  C.  S. 
Windover,  of  Huntingdon,  McNaught  &  Smith,  of  Worcester,  each 
sent  four  vehicles  ;  John  Eoberts,  of  Manchester,  being  represented  by 
one  only. 

It  may  be  proper  to  say  that  this  English  collection,  taken  on  the 
whole,  has  been  very  severely  criticised  by  many  American  visitors, 
perhaps  uncharitably  so.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  on  first  sight,  stand- 
ing as  they  did  in  close  proximity  to  a  very  large  assortment  of  Amer- 
ican vehicles  of  lighter  construction,  they  seemed  unnecessarily  clumsy, 
and  in  some  specimens  the  painting  looked  rather  dull.  The  same 
degree  of  dullness  may  have  been  attributed  to  the  French  collection, 
had  it  stood  under  the  same  circumstances  with  the  English,  alongside 
of  the  American,  just  turned  out  of  the  varnish-room.  Whether  this 
dullness  was  owing  to  transmission  across  the  ocean,  or  consequent  on 
exhibition  at  home,  we  are  not  prepared  to  say.  At  any  rate,  it  is  due 
on  our  part  to  mention  that  our  English  contemporaries  at  South  Ken- 
sington, in  1873,  where  we  saw,  under  more  favorable  circumstances,  a 
greater  variety  and  number  of  carriages,  made  a  much  brighter  show 
in  varnish  and  some  other  details.  Had  some  of  these  sneerers  at  Eng- 
lish carriages  seen,  as  we  did,  their  carriages  abroad,  they  would  have 
been  better  circumstanced  for  forming  a  correct  judgment  respecting 
the  progress  of  art  in  the  Old  World. 

In  a  central  double  row,  parallel  with  the  English,  stood  the  carriages 
of  several  other  foreign  manufacturers,  viz.,  Russia,  representing  three 
firms,  with  five  ;  Italy,  two  ;  Austria,  two  ;  Belgium,  one  ;  besides  oth- 
ers from  Canada.  None  of  these  deserve  special  notice,  if  we  except  a 
phaeton  which  they  denominate  a  "  sand  runner,"  by  J.  Lohner  &  Co., 
of  Antwerp,  —  a  fair  representative  of  the  present  state  of  German  art, 
eccentric  and  clumsy.  This  firm  is  said  to  have  taken  medals  in  no  less 
than  six  previous  exhibitions,  in  diflerent  cities  on  the  European  conti- 
nent, principally  for  improvements  in  landaus,  constructed  according 
to  the  "  Lohner  system."  Opinions  as  expressed  by  visitors  after  inspec- 


CAURIAGES   OF  AMEBIC  AN  MANUFACTURE.  475 

tion  of  the  carriages  were  as  diversified  as  the  nationalities  represented. 
We  overheard  one  enthusiastic  American  declare  that  our  country  had 
reason  to  be  proud  of  its  vehicular  art,  especially  in  the  lining  and 
painting  departments.  How  much  truth  there  may  be  in  these  respects, 
we  leave  to  the  judgment  of  others.  The  Centennial  judges  report: 
*' Whether  exhibited  by  foreigners  or  by  Americans,  we  found  in  every 
class  examined  by  us  a  remarkable  average  of  excellence,  and  to  one 
having  some  years  of  experience  in  this  branch  of  manufactures  (car- 
riages, harness,  and  their  accessories)  the  extraordinary  progress  and 
improvements  realized  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  especially 
in  the  United  States,  cannot  fail  to  be  striking  in  the  extreme. 

"To  begin  with  pleasure  carriages,  their  general  appearance  reveals 
an  amount  of  symmetry  and  elegance  of  form,  harmony  of  lines,  taste 
and  finish  of  colors  and  trimmings,  and  a  variety  of  styles,  nicely 
adapted  to  each  and  every  purpose  for  which  they  may  be  specially 
intended,  that  would  hardly  have  been  dreamed  of  but  a  comparatively 
brief  number  of  years  since."  With  these  remarks  it  now  remains  for 
us  to  introduce  a  few  of  the  American  carriages,  not  as  possessing  the 
more  peculiar  features  of  domestic  production,  but  as  serving  our  pur- 
pose, which  is  to  show  by  illustration  the  variety  in  our  carriage  nomen- 
clature. 

The  pleasure-carriages  of  American  manufacture  occupied  positions 
westerly  and  northerly  —  in  the  Carriage  Annex  —  of  those  from  for- 
eign lands,  two  abreast,  filling  several  rows,  amounting  to  about  three 
hundred,  including  carriages,  wagons,  omnibuses,  hearses,  cars,  and 
sleighs.  We  can  only  find  room  to  notice  a  very  small  number  in  this 
collection,  —  although  many  of  them  are  well  deserving  of  commenda- 
tion,—  beginning  with  those  of  Brewster  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  pre- 
mising that  their  carriages,  like  those  of  Million,  Guiet  &  Co.,  were 
debarred  competition  in  consequence  of  their  Mr.  Kimball  having  been 
appointed  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition. 
The  contributions  of  this  house  consisted  of  two  landaus,  one  Brougham, 
one  Victoria  (see  illustration  on  next  page),  one  phaeton,  and  two 
wagons  with  tops,  besides  three  sleighs.  The  eight-spring  Victoria 
which  we  have  selected  for  illustration  occupied  a  central  position  in 
the  Carriage  Annex,  attracting  the  attention  of  all  visitors  taking  the 
least  interest  in  the  vehicular  exhibit.  In  constructing  this  carriage 
the  builders  have  adopted  many  features  novel  in  this  country,  but 


476 


SUPPLEMENTAL    WOELD  ON  WHEELS. 


Avell  known  to  the  leading  manufacturers  of  the  Old  World,  as  has 
been  seen  in  this  volume.  It  has,  however,  some  new  jjoints,  such  as 
a  removable  boot  and  front  seat,  allowinsr  it  to  be  driven  en  daumoni. 


Brewster   &  Co.'s  Double-suspension  Victoria 


and  a  toe-board  to  the  rumble.  This  vehicle  is  noticeable  for  good  work- 
manship and  fine  finish.  A  more  useful  carriage  for  summer  exercise 
in  our  Central  Park  is  scarcely  conceivable. 

In  the  northwest  corner  of  the  collection  we  found  those  of  J.  B. 
Brewster  &  Co.,  the  rival  house  in  New  York.  This  firm  exhibited 
seven  carriages,  viz.,  one  coach,  one  landau,  one  demi-landau,  one 
Brougham,  one  Victoria,  one  Windsor  wagon,  and  a  side-bar  wagon. 

The  five-glass  landau  exhibited  by  this  firm  is  constructed  on  the 
Lohner  system,  to  which  allusion  has  previously  been  made.  The 
dickey-seat,  set  on  a  light  riser,  is  hinged  thereto,  allowing  it  to°  be 
turned  forward,  so  as  to  let  the  front  portion  of  the  head  fall  on  a  line 
with  the  back.  The  moldings  on  the  doors  and  quarters  are  disposed 
in  a  novel  manner,  imparting  to  the  vehicle  a  very  solid  and  aristo- 
cratic look,  which  is  further  improved  by  a  fine  finish. 

Another  New  York  carriage-builder,  E.  M.  Stivers,  exhibited  two 
buggies  and  one  Surrey-wagon,  mounted  on  his  patent  "  circular  com- 
bination springs,"  which  have  obtained  some  popularity  among  the 
fancy  on  the  city  drives.     Mr.  Stivers  calls  his  Surrey  "  the  Warwick," 


those  occupying  the  back  seat  by  turning  one  half  of  .the  front  seat 
over  the  near  side  forward  wheel,  for  which  purpose  it  is  hinged  to  the 


AMEBIC  AN  CENTENNIAL   CABBIAGES, 


477 


side.  By  iidcling  an  elevated  cushion  for  the  driver,  the  builder  has 
succeeded  in  giving  an  aristocratic  character  to  an  otherwise  ordinary 
vehicle. 

Some  of  the  observations  made  in  relation  to  the  dickey-seat  of  the 
last  carriage  are  likewise  applicable  to  the  vis-a-vis  of  McLear  & 
Kendall,  of  Wilmington,  Del.  This,  although  not  designed  for 
removal,  is  so  arranged  on  the  loop-iron  as  to  give  the  vehicle  an 
unusually  light  appearance,  even  for  an  American  carriage.  Both  the 
front  seat  and  rumble  behind  are  quite  original  in  design,  the  outlines 


McLeak   85   Kendall's   Vis-A-vis. 

being  very  happily  contrived  to  correspond  with  the  other  parts  of  the 
vehicle.  The  body,  lightly  constructed,  having  a  sun-top  supported 
by  iron  standards,  is  hung  oif  on  four  elliptical  and  two  C-springs,  and 
when  carrjnng  six  persons,  for  which  there  are  seats,  must  be  easy 
riding.  As  a  light  family  carriage  for  summer  exercise  in  the  Park, 
or  where  the  roads  are  good,  it  cannot  well  be  excelled. 

Messrs.  James  Goold  &  Co.,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  had  on  exhibition  a 
vehicle  denominated  a  drawing-room  coach,  the  idea  being  suggested 
by  the  drawing-room  cars  on  our  railroads.  The  novelty  attached  to 
this  carriage  is  confined  to  the  doorway,  which  is  about  double  the 
usual  width  of  that  in  other  coaches.  This  doorway  and  the  space 
above  is  ingeniously  closed  by  three  glass  frames,  the  middle  one 
dropping  into  the  door,  the  other  two  remaining  inside. 

The  last  vehicle  we  can  find  room  for  is  an  American  hearse,  exhib- 


478  8TJpplem:ental  wobld  oi^  wheels. 

ited  by  James  Cunningham,  Rochester,  N.  Y.  In  no  other  country 
are  the  remains  of  the  dead  borne  to  the  grave  in  such  costly  vehicles 
as  are  the  departed  sovereigns  of  this  "  land  of  the  free  and  home  of 
the  brave."  It  would  seem  as  though,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  a 
strife  has  been  going  on  among  builders  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
how  many  feet  of  plate-glass  could  be  crowded  into  the  limited  space 
comprising  the  side  panels  of  a  hearse.     What  success  has  crowned  the 


James  Cunningham   &   Son's   Hearse. 

latest  eifort  is  shown  in  the  above  engraving.  Our  illustration  is  so 
explicit  that  very  little  additional  need  be  said  in  regard  to  this  splen- 
did carriage.  We  learn  that  it  has,  since  it  received  the  special  award 
of  the  jurors,  been  sold  to  Allison  Nailor,  Jr.,  an  undertaker  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  for  $3,500. 

The  attentive  reader  of  this  volume  will  now  l)e  able  to  form,  in  his 
own  mind,  an  estimate  of  the  progress  made  in  the  art  of  coach-build- 
ing during  the  past  few  j^cars,  especially  in  Europe  and  America.  If 
he  has  looked  at  this  subject  from  our  standpoint,  he  has  discovered 
that  the  earlier  advance  in  carriage-building  was  Avith  the  French,  with 
whom,  for  some  centuries,  it  has  been  progressive,  and  that  both  Eng- 
land and  America  have,  in  some  degree,  been  "very  good  copyists." 
No  doubt  England  has  been,  in  the  past,  less  impressible  from  that 


CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION'S  DECISION.  479 

quarter  than  America,  partly  from  political  prejudice,  and  partly  from 
a  natural  jealousy  of  anything  continental ;  whilst  America,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  for  the  past  century  been  ever  ready  to  borrow  from 
her  old  political  ally  anything  which  suited  her  taste.  The  result  of 
this  course  has  culminated  in  furnishing  this  country  with  a  very  light 
class  of  work,  while  England,  though  somewhat  influenced  in  this 
respect  by  modern  surroundings,  still  clings  to  her  old  habits,  and  pro- 
duces a  comparatively  heavy  class  of  vehicles.  Until  the  tastes  of  his 
customers  chauije,  the  Ensrlish  workman  has  no  other  alternative  than 
to  continue  on  in  the  old  rut,  or  find  his  workshop  drugged  by  the  labor 
of  his  own  hands.  No  one  can  look  with  a  mechanical  eye  over  the 
pages  of  this  volume,  without  being  forcibly  impressed  with  the  Cen- 
tennial Commission's  decision,  —  that  the  general  appearance  of  the 
carriages  of  France,  England,  and  America  "reveal  an  amount  of  sym- 
metry and  elegance  of  form,  harmony  of  lines,  .  .  .  and  a  vari- 
ety of  styles  "  never  before  presented  to  the  view  of  this  critical  world. 
In  order  to  render  as  fair  a  hearing  as  possible  to  our  competitors  on 
the  other  side,  let  us  listen  to  what  they  have  to  say  of  us.  The  Eng- 
lish "  Carriage-Builders'  Gazette  "  declares  that  "  American  manufac- 
turers have  confessedly  a  tendency  to  take  incessant  departures  from 
accepted  European  styles,  whether  in  modes  of  construction  or  design, 
aiming  perpetually  at  originality  ;  but  whilst  in  several  branches  of  the 
arts  this  has  led  to  many  serviceable  improvements  and  inventions,  so 
much  cannot  be  said  for  what  the  French  term  '  carriages  of  luxury.' 
They  have,  however,  aimed  successfully  at  achieving  remarkable  light 
ness,  and  have  adapted  any  number  of  English  and  continental  patents 
to  their  purposes.  Reports  received  by  us  from  the  Centennial  Exhibi- 
tion show  a  high  standard  of  merit  in  omnibuses,  railway  '  express- 
wagons,'  and  tramway  cars.  In  the  higher  class  of  equipages  there  is 
frequently  an  amount  of  glaring  and  costly  external  ornamentation 
which  is  far  from  being  consonant  with  English  taste.  In  securing 
lightness,  with  due  regard  to  strength,  there  is  commonly  employed,  in 
the  construction  of  wheels  and  other  parts  requiring  this  combination, 
a  native  wood  (upland  hickory)  which  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  pur- 
pose. The  United  States  builders  are  certainly  not  wanting  in  variety 
in  the  makes  they  turn  out,  and  in  wagons,  especially,  allowance  must 
be  made  for  purposes  of  special  adaptation.  Large  wheels  and  high- 
huug  bodies  would  ^eem  to  be  the  prevailing  rule,  and  there  is  a  gen- 


480  SUPPLEMENTAL    WORLD   ON   WHEELS. 

eral  use  of  very  excellent  patent  and  enameled  leathers,  combining  in 
a  remarkable  degree  pliancy  and  waterproof  qualities,  though  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  productions  of  the  best  makers  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Belgium." 

Mr.  M.  Guiet,  of  Paris,  a  coach-builder  and  member  of  the  Inter- 
national Jury,  since  his  return  to  France  has  published  an  individual 
report,  from  which  we  make  some  extracts,  as  translated  for  the  Hub  : 
"The  number  of  awards  granted  to  foreign  exhibitors,  as  compared 
with  those  of  American  exhibitors,  may,  at  first  sight,  appear  some- 
what out  of  proportion  to  the  total  number  of  their  exhibits.  But  this 
is  readily  explained  by  the  obvious  fact  that  foreign  nations,  owing  to 
the  heavy  expenses  made  necessary  by  such  a  distant  exhibition,  only 
sent  the  elite  of  their  manufactures,  whereas  the  American  manufac- 
turers, being  on  the  spot,  or  at  least  but  a  short  distance  off,  and  having 
comparatively  light  expenses  to  bear,  exhibited  in  great  numbers,  with- 
out always  exercising  a  sufficiently  strict  selection.  But  whether  ex- 
hibited by  foreigners  or  Americans,  the  products  of  every  class  and 
nature  which  we  examined  were  found  most  remarkable  in  their  aver- 
age quality;  and  whoever  has  for  the  past  few  years  followed  with 
interest  the  development  of  this  branch  of  industry  (carriages,  harness, 
and  their  accessories) ,  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  extraordinary 
progress  realized  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  more  particu- 
larly, perhaps,  in  the  United  States.  Pleasure  carriages  of  every  style, 
and  well  adapted  to  the  various  uses  to  which  they  are  intended,  reveal 
in  their  general  appearance  a  symmetry,  an  elegance  of  form,  a  har- 
mony of  lines,  and  a  finish  and  taste  in  the  painting  and  trimming, 
which  would  hardly  have  been  dreamed  of  a  few  years  since. 

"Among  the  leading  causes  of  this  improvement,  we  must,  first  of  all, 
mention  the  division  of  labor  which  now  prevails  in  the  manufacture 
of  the  various  component  parts  of  a  carriage.  Axles,  springs,  clips, 
bolts,  and  all  other  iron  parts,  which  every  carriage-builder  was  for- 
merly compelled  to  manufacture  for  himself,  with  such  means  as  he  had 
at  his  command,  are  now  produced  in  large  quantities  in  special  estab- 
lishments, with  a  remarkal)le  degree  of  perfection,  and  at  prices  much 
below  the  former  ones.  Notable  improvements  have  also  been  realized 
in  the  manufacture  of  wheels,  hubs,  spokes,  felloes,  and  bent  woods  of 
all  kinds.  Rims  made  of  two  pieces  of  bent  wood  have,  almost  every- 
where in  the  United  States,  taken  the  place  of  the  old-fashioned  felloes 


CARRIAGE-BUILDERS'   NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION.       481 

ill  short  sections,  and  this  improvement  is  daily  tending  to  become  more 
general  abroad,  especiall}^  in  France  and  England.     .     .     . 

''In  France,  carriage-building,  which  was  formerly  l)ut  a  small  busi- 
ness, has  become,  in  the  hands  of  a  few  manufacturers,  —  thanks  to  the 
increase  of  the  public  wealth  and  the  general  improvement  in  the  man- 
ner of  living,  —  an  industry  of  considerable  magnitude,  which  deserves, 
for  more  reasons  than  one,  very  careful  attention.  .  .  .  We  are 
compelled  to  constantly  vary  our  forms  of  styles  and  painting,  so  that 
a  carriage  which  has  remained  on  hand  only  a  year  or  two  seems  out 
of  fashion,  and  becomes  difficult  to  sell.  Out  of  ten  sales  that  take 
place,  there  is  scarcely  one  of  an  entirely  finished  carriage  that  hap- 
pens to  unite  every  desideratum  of  the  purchaser.  Carriages  in  store 
are  almost  wholly  used  as  types  or  models,  whose  forms,  colors,  trim- 
mings, and  even  height  and  track  are  modified  to  suit  the  amateur's 
fancy.  ...  In  the  United  States,  on  the  contrary,  carriages  are 
manufactured  by  the  quantity,  after  a  very  limited  number  of  models 
of  various  styles,  which  makes  easy  the  application  of  mechanical  pro- 
cesses, and  quite  possible  the  accumulation  of  a  large  stock  on  hand  ; 
for  this  reason  we  everywhere  saw  machines  taking  the  place  of  hand 
labor,  and  on  the  laro-est  scale." 


On  the  19th  of  November,  1872,  a  convention  of  practical  me- 
chanics, representing  some  seventeen  States,  met  in  New  York  City, 
and  organized  the  Carriage-builders'  National  Association,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  interests  of  trade.  As  far  back  as  1862,  the  author, 
then  conducting  a  trade  journal,  had  advocated  some  movement  of  the 
kind  as  a  protection  for  the  industrious  against  the  unprincipled  action 
of  certain  adventurers  whose  sole  aim  was  to  rob  the  public,  under 
the  color  of  law,  for  individual  benefit  at  whatever  cost.  The  wisdom 
of  the  measures  thus  taken  by  the  trade  has  since  been  amply  demon- 
strated in  various  ways.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  all  American  carriage- 
l)uilders  will  soon  become  members,  and  thereby  secure  some  of  its 
advantages. 

The  drag,  which  has  been  fully  described  in  another  chapter,  has 
recently  created  some  interest  in  America,  where,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  New  York  Coaching  Clul),  it  has  been  the  wonder  of 
sporting  men  and  the  observed  of  all  observers.     The  first  practical 

31 


^482  SUPPLEMENTAL    WOELD   ON  WHEELS. 

use  of  this  vehicle  was  made  by  Col.  Delancey  Kane,  an  enterprising 
Englishman,  by  running  it  as  a  passenger  coach  between  New  York 
City  and  Pelham  Bridge.  It  was  started  from  the  Hotel  Brunswick, 
May  1,  1876,  with  a  full  complement  of  passengers,  and  engagements 
sufficient  to  lill  the  seats  each  day  for  a  month  in  advance.  Any  one, 
lady  or  gentleman,  willing  to  pay,  was  booked.  From  the  moment 
of  starting  until  the  return  trip  the  most  intense  interest  was  mani- 
fested by  the  people  along  the  route  at  seeing  this  new  candidate  for 
public  favor  approach  with  a  horn  sounding  as  in  the  olden  time  of 
stage-coaching.  More  recently  several  wealthy  individuals  have  pur- 
chased vehicles  of  the  drag  class,  and,  aping  the  European  fashion, 
now  drive  through  our  streets  in  the  most  approved  style  with  the 
greatest  apparent  satisfaction. 


GENERAL   INDEX 


Aboo-simbel,  temple  at,  note,  41 ;  Rameses  III, 

recorded  deeds  of,  39. 
Ahradatus.  constructs  scvthe-chariots,  TOO;  is 

killed,  101. 
Absares,  scythe-chariots  at  the  battle  of,  107. 
Accommodation,  A.  Brower's,  432. 
Adams's,  W.  B.,  improvements  of,  373. 
Agamemnon,  a  noted  Grecian,  89. 
Agricola,  Caledonians,  battle  with,  251. 
Alci  blades  at  the  race,  chariots  of,  124  ;  mean- 
ness of,  125. 
Alexander,  chariot-races,  his  opinion  of,  125; 

battle  with  Thracians,  108  ;  funeral  car  of, 

113. 
Alliterative  literature  of  coach  owners,  365. 
Amazons,  Scythian,  offers  of  marriage,  refuse, 

207. 
Ambition  of  mankind,  17. 
Amun,  worship  of,  48. 
Andrews,  Rich.,  Mayor  of  Southampton,  builds 

the    Queen's  phaeton,  379  ;  his   sj^stem   of 

letting  carriages,  ?wte,  350. 
Angesilaus,  victor  in   the   chariot-race,    126; 

sells  his  prisoners,  110. 
Anglo-Saxon  carts,  256,  257 ;  hammock  car- 
riage, 255  ;  harvest-scene,  257  ;  period,  note, 

253  ;  truck,  257. 
Animals,  wild,    Coelius's  fondness  for,    167  ; 

various,  in  the  race,  ib. 
Annals  of  Philadelphia,  Watson's,  note,  399. 
Anniceus,  a  skillful  driver,  128. 
Antiochus,  scythe-chariots  of,  109. 
Apollo,  car  of,  188. 

Apprentice,  the  Deanes',  runaway,  409. 
Apuleius,  quotation  from,  note,  64. 
Arabians,  their  chariots,  Cyrus's  opinion  of, 

99. 
Arbela,  note,  93,  107. 
Arcera,  Roman,  148. 
Archeology,  quoted,  77ote,  253,  263,  265. 
Architecture,  Egyptian,  ChampoUion  on,  20. 
Arrian,  quoted,  101,  note,  108. 
Ari.stocracy,  English,  carriages  of,  314. 
Armenians  at  Arbela,  107. 
Army,  Egyptian,  military  organization  of,  43. 
Art,  Assyrian,  whence  derived,  89 ;  progress 

of,  18. 
Asiatics,  99. 
Assassination,  in  a  coach,  of  Duke  of  Orleans, 

215;  of  Henry  IV,  217. 
Assyria,  chronology  of,  72 ;  foundation  of,  69  ; 


records  of,  73  ;  in  alliance  with  Egvpt,  note, 
89. 

Assyrian  bass-reliefs,  95  ;  compared  with  Egyp- 
tian, 73 ;  in  British  Museum,  74. 

Assyrian  king,  crosses  a  river  in  his  chariot, 
70;  attacks  Hezekiah,  85. 

Assyrians,  peace  treaty  of,  75 ;  war-chariots 
of,  73. 

Axle-tree,  Ackerman's,  362 ;  Collinge's,  333  ; 
Strattou's,  454. 

Bagdad,  note,  94. 

Baggage-cart,  Egyptian,  46. 

Baggage-rack,  433. 

Baris,  or  Egyptian  boat,  44. 

Barouche,    American,    433 ;     English,    329 ; 

French,  357  ;  open  town,  387. 
Basterna  struck  by  lightning,  139. 
Battle-scene  from  Luxor,  53. 
Bealson,  Robert,  road-protector  of,  333. 
Beit-ualli,  Nubia,  37. 
Benna,  Roman  rustic  wagon,  179. 
Berliner,  in  Cluny  Museum,  233  ;  varieties  of, 

227. 
Birch  quoted,  note,  82. 
Birds,  with  chariots,  97  ;  as  auguries,  96. 
Birotum,  Roman,  147. 
Boadicea,  opposes  the  Roman  army,  249. 
Boguet,  French,  244. 
Bonomi  quoted,  73,  74 ;  note,  79. 
Boonen,  Win.,  Q.  Elizabeth,  coachman  of,  267. 
Botta,  quoted,  69,  79,  84. 
Boyle  on  coach-riding,  307. 
Brewer's  cart  as   moderator,   293 ;    one-sided 

judgment  of,  294 ;  appeal  from,  295. 
Bradford,  Wm.,  note,  400. 
Braeck,  French,  244. 
Brights  and  Blacks,  factional,  335. 
Brouette,  English,  324  ;  French,  230. 
Brougham,  English,  376. 
Buggy,  American,  429  ;  Bonner,  464;  Carter's 

Newark,  436;  cut-under,  446;  gents'  road, 

457 ;    Jenny  Lind,  452 ;    square,  453 ;    top, 

465. 
Bullock  transit-wagon,  Indian,  205. 
Butler,  John,  stage-wagon  of,  404. 
Butterfly,  weakness,  typical  of,  188. 
Byron  quoted,  69. 

Cab,  American,  443 ;  Hansom's,  373,  385 ; 
Okey's  quartobus,  379. 


484 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


Cabmen,  dishonesty  of,  note,  386  ;  enemy  of, 
ib. ;  wages,  385. 

Cabriolet,  American,  437,  458  ;  Chinese,  201  ; 
Harvey's,  378  ;  private,  369. 

Cadusians  as  Persian  soldiers,  107. 

Cresar  in  Britain,  landing  of,  248. 

Calash,  Wm.  Penn's,  399 ;  Willing's,  407 ; 
American,  459. 

Caleche,  French,  247  ;  imported,  407,  457. 

Calesso,  Neapolitan,  199. 

Caligula  incensed,  163. 

Calgagus,  chariots  of,  249. 

Camillus,  presumption  of,  172. 

Campbell,  William,  first  New  York  wheel- 
wright, 402. 

Cappadocians  levied  by  Persians,  107. 

Carceres,  starting-point  in  the  race,  126. 

Cariole,  Norwegian,  392,  471. 

Carmen,  New  York,  398. 

Carriage,  Gallic,  oldest,  211  ;  John  Henry's, 
412  ;  wedding  present  of,  394. 

Carriage-builders'  National  Association,  467, 
481. 

Carriage-makers  in  New  York,  413,  420,  425. 

Carriage-making,  Egyptian,  20. 

Carriage-part,  frame-work  of,  464. 

Carriages  (American),  Centennial,  475. 

Carriages  (English),  Centennial,  471. 

Carriages  (French),  Centennial,  468. 

Carriages,  chronology  of,  note,  117;  close,  216; 
costly,  231  ;  country-made,  428  ;  destructive 
to  life,  248;  duties  on,  252;  European,  210, 
398,  404;  forbidden  to  women,  211;  for- 
bidden, importation  of,  411;  Hungarian, 
211;  leasing  of,  349;  names  of,  179;  nu- 
merous in  Naples,  198  ;  ordinances  for,  400; 
Parisian,  243;  Philadelphian,  410;  Roman 
and  Grecian,  138;  Spanish,  217;  tax  on, 
417,  458,  459 ;  use  of,  limited,  141 ;  varieties 
of,  226,  230;  why  so  called,  178. 

Carpenter,  Abram,  doggerel  verse  of,  403. 

Carpentum,  why  so  called,  139  ;  four-wheeled 
described,  140 ;  forbidden  to  women,  141 ; 
used  at  weddings,  140. 

Carpentum  Pompaticum,  141. 

Carroch,  French,  226. 

Carroccio,  captured  from  Florentines,  197. 

Carrosses,  216;  body  of,  232. 

Carruca,  a  Roman  vehicle,  177  ;  why  so 
called,  150. 

Carrus,  Roman,  148;  differs  from  the  plaus- 
trum,  152;  used  for  liquids,  151;  in  Cae- 
sar's army,  149. 

Carrus  Clabularius,  Roman,  152. 

Cart,  Egyptian,  baggage,  46 ;  Elamitish,  91  ; 
Gujerat  village,  204;  JPicardy,  218;  pony, 
456  ;  Tartar,  208 ;  mule,  90  ;  ox,  90 ;  use- 
fulness of,  283  ;  wheels  of,  205. 

Carts,  butcher's  and  grocer's,  442  ;  Chinese, 
200,  201  ;  dignity  of,  295  ;  Indian,  ruts  of, 
205  ;  plain  honesty  of,  283. 

Cassivellanus,  opposes  Ccesar  in  Britain,  248. 

Catacombs,  Egyptian,  note,  21. 


Celtic  fondness  for  horses,  255. 

Celsus  quoted,  118. 

Centennial,  American,  468. 

Centennial  carriages,  judges'  report  on,  475 ; 

Guiet's,  468. 
Central  Park,  view  in,  396  ;  note,  441,  459. 
Chair,  83,  419. 

Chairmen,  unpleasantness  among,  315. 

Chaise,  American,  404  ;  French,  229. 

Chaises,  costs  of,  note,  430 ;  London,  403 ; 
Pennsylvanian,  402,  403,  439;  Staten  Isl- 
and, 411. 

ChcJdeans,  91. 

Char-a-banc,  239. 

Chares,  258 ;  ladies  punished  for  using,  257  ; 
with  the  poets,  259. 

Chariclea,  Dianian  priestess,  112. 

Chariot,  Abradatus's,  100  ;  after  Ginzrot,  99  ; 
appendage  to,  73 ;  British,  in  Rome,  255  ; 
britzscha,  263 ;  Brown  Willis's,  341  ;  cap- 
tured by  Assyrians,  82  ;  common,  228  ; 
composite,  367  ;  costs  of,  307  ;  Earl  Darn- 
ley's,  309 ;  distinguished  from  the  Egyp- 
tian, 82 ;  Egyptian  hunting,  50 ;  Felton's, 
341 ;  grotesque,  194 ;  in  Florentine  Museum, 
57  ;  making  pole  of,  66  ;  O.  Elliott's,  359  ; 
Pepys's  mention  of,  300;  Queen  Mary's, 
263  ;  rave  of,  61  ;  rimming  wheel  of,  65 ; 
Saxon,  254;  state  (Fr.),  216;  tassels  for, 
73 ;  trimming  body  of,  68 ;  traveling,  366, 
435;  Trojan,  89;  Vatican,  120;  wabbling, 
215;  wheel  of,  57,  61. 

Chariots,  Egyptian,  rope  floors  of,  33 ;  Etrus- 
can, 135  ;  Mars  the  first  to  teach  the  art  of 
making,  117;  Grecian,  on  coins,  118;  Mi- 
nerva the  inventor  of,  117  ;  open-sided,  34  ; 
ornamental,  42  ;  Phrygians  first  to  harness 
to,  117  ;  Plato's  description  of,  119  ;  Roman, 
names  of,  158;  racing,  161,  193. 

Chariot-race,  Cynisca,  126 ;  Democritus,  124, 
Philip,  125,  victors  in  ;  Erichthonius  first 
uses  four  horses  in,  117;  importance  of, 
124  ;  Thucydides  on,  125. 

Chariotee,  431. 

Charles,  Earl  Stanhope,  inventions  of,  note, 
361. 

Charon,  fable  of,  28. 

Charvolaut,  365. 

Chaucer  quoted,  260. 

Child's  carriage,  188. 

Circus,  Roman,  163. 

Circus  Maximus,  note,  161 ;  races  in,  163  ;  wild 
beasts,  etc.,  168. 

Cisium,  why  so  called,  note,  144;  with  deer 
team,  145;  the  gallant's  carriage,  146. 

City  Madam,  Massinger's,  288. 

Claudius,  251. 

Clarence,  376  ;  American,  458  ;  Parker's,  440  ; 
three-quarter,  464. 

Clip  king-bolt,  Phelps's,  451 ;  Reynolds's,  450. 

Cluny  Museum,  carriages  in,  222,  233. 

Coach,  etymology  of  the  word,  211 ;  note,  256  ; 
Archbishop  Parker's,  267 ;  basterna,   377  ; 


GENEBAL  INDEX. 


485 


Beekman's,  408;  bridal,  317,394;  cost  of, 
289 ;  crane-neck,  337  ;  first  English  railway, 
363  ;  for  Continental  travel,  463  ;  Goold's 
drawing-room,  477 ;  Lord  Chancellor  of 
Ireland's,  332 ;  Montgoraerie's,  401 ;  Powell's 
416;  Queen  Elizabeth's,  265, 266  ;  Southern, 
446  ;  Washington's,  41 1 ;  coach  and  carroach, 
note,  262. 

Coaches,  annoyances  of,  285,  288 ;  best  uses 
of,  287;  crime  caused  by,  286;  crane-neck, 
337 ;  deaf  to  good  instruction,  281 ;  death 
to  saddlers,  278 ;  destructive  to  ash-trees, 
279  ;  disgraceful  to  ride  in,  268  ;  engines 
of  pride,  280  ;  face  ornaments,  296  ; 
for  hooped  ladies,  310;  glass,  221;  heir- 
loom, 314;  how  utilized,  257;  in  Boston, 
note,  298;  in  Cluny,  221 ;  in  Philadelphia, 
399,  419 ;  in  New  York,  403  ;  in  Revolution- 
ary times,  408 ;  increase  of,  297,  299  ;  inju- 
rious to  watermen,  278;  introduction  into 
England,  264  ;  lame  the  owner's  wife,  2,^2  ; 
make  costly  leather,  277  ;  opposed  by  water- 
men, 270;  overthrow  of,  289;  pester  the 
streets,  270 ;  proposals  to  restrain,  269 ; 
rage  for,  271 ;  remedies  proposed,  against, 
330 ;  ruin  shopkeepers,  299  ;  sin-gentility, 
269  ;  St.  Petersburg  Museum,  392  ;  Tattler 
on,  311  ;  taxed,  316;  twin-bodied,  219;  un- 
mannerly, 285 ;  wastefulness  of,  283  ;  worth- 
lessness  of,  285. 

Coach-makers,  arms  of,  306  ;  in  Albany,  421 ; 
in  New  York,  413,  420,  425;  in  Philadel- 
phia, 411,  414;  in  England,  number  of, 
374;  patriotic,  415  ;  societies,  306. 

Coach-making  in  Albany,  421 ;  in  Massachu- 
setts, note,  417  ;  in  Revolutionary  times,  413. 

Coach  and  harness  makers  in  Pliiladelphia, 
411. 

Coach-riding,  Boyle  on,  307. 

Coach  and  sedan,  dispute  of,  293. 

Coach  and  six,  273,  307,  314. 

Coach-springs,  first  New  York  maker  of,  note, 
421, 

Coaches,  C-spring,  434;  Parker's,  441. 

Coachmen,  drunken,  284  ;  rascalities  of,  320. 

Cochio,  description  of,  197. 

Coelius's  leopards,  present  of,  167. 

Colden,  Lieut.-Gov.  Cadwallader,  coach,  burn- 
ing of,  408. 

Colonial  ordinances  relating  to  carriages,  400. 

Corbillard,  French,  224. 

Coryat,  Tom,  travels  of,  218. 

Coupe',  American,  circular  front,  462 ;  Eng- 
lish, 387  ;  French,  242,  243. 

Covina,  British,  250. 

Covin  us,  Gallican,  104. 

Cows  at  funerals,  24  ;  Egyptian  reverence 
for,  note,  24  ;  versus  horses,  203. 

Cremation,  Roman,  173. 

Creusa,  wife  of  ^neas,  131. 

Crevier  on  scythe-chariots,  106. 

Croesus,  101  ;  compelled  his  wives  to  travel  at 
night.  111. 


Cromwell,  note,  260. 

Cruelty  of  the  Egyptians,  33,  37. 

Ctesius,  in  Ninus's  army,  scythe-chariots  of, 
note,  98. 

Cummings,  Alex.,  on  wheels,  331. 

Cupid  in  character  of  cliarioteer,  186,  187, 
191,  192 

Curious  mixture,  309. 

Curricle,  American,  408;  phaeton,  346;  prop- 
er, 345  ;  new  pattern,  346. 

Curricles,  Adams  on,  346;  gig,  317 ;  improved, 
354  ;  Italian,  origin  of,  345. 

Curriculus,  or  child's  carriage,  156. 

Curtius,  Quiutus,  quoted,  98,  103,  111. 

Cypselus,  chariot  horse  trainer,  124. 

Cyrenians,  99. 

Cyrus,  against  Sardis,  expedition  of,  98  ;  old 
chariots,  low  estimate  of,  99  ;  makes  new 
form  of  chariots,  note,  73. 

Dabistan,  reference  to,  note,  93. 

Damasippus,  note,  140. 

Darius  at  Arbela,  107. 

Darius  Hystaspes,  note,  93. 

Dashour,  wheel  from,  57. 

Dean  Swift  on  chairs,  317. 

Deane,  E.  and  W.,  carriages,  early  importers 

of,  409. 
Demi-caleche,  242. 
Demi-landau,  462. 
Dennet,  371. 
Desobligeant,  228. 
Diana,  car  of,  190. 

Dickey-seat,  fii'st  appearance  of,  308. 
Didymus,  of  Alexandria,  78. 
Diodorus  Siculus  quoted,  note,  17,  43,  53. 
Diomede,  spoiler  of  Rhesus,  97. 
Diomedes,  wronged  by  Alcibiades,  125. 
Diphron,  105,  118. 
Dog-cart,  240;  shamrock,  381. 
Domitius,  skilled  chariot-driver,  128, 
Double  Stanhope,  436. 
Douceurs,  whips  receivers  of,  335. 
Drag,  description  of,  473 ;  Hooper  &  Co.'s, 

472  ;  in  New  York,  281, 
Drasina,  Gompertz's,  466. 
I^ressing  tails  of  horses,  87. 
Droschke,  Russian,  390. 

Duke  of  Queensbury  duped  by  his  footman,314. 
Du  Simitiere,  P.,  note,  410. 

Earl  of  Rutland,  English  coach  of,  265. 

Eccentricities  of  gentlemen,  333. 

Egypt,  magnificence  of,  20 ;  mechanism,  20, 

64 ;  founding  of,  21 ;  funerals  of,  21 ;  events 

recorded  of,  note,  20. 
Egyptians  in  the  army  of  Croesus,  101.     , 
Elamites,  carts  of,  90. 
Elegy  on  death  of  trade,  309. 
Emergard,  flight  of,  211. 
Emperors  as  charioteers,  165. 
English  pleasure-carriages,  note,  98;  love  of 

display,  389. 


486 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Eos,  goddess,  129. 

Epicurean  picture,  195. 

ErichthouiiTs,  first  to  ride  in  chariots,  116. 

Esseda,  Britisli,  250. 

Essedura,  Ginzrot's,  252  ;  Pownall  on,  251. 

Ethiopia,  hunting  in,  50,  77. 

Etruria,  mythology  of,  95. 

Etruscan  chariots,  135 

Eunuchs  as  chariot-drivers,  81. 

Evelyn's  diary,  258. 

Express-wagou,  442, 

Pactions,  hov*r  divided,  163  ;  Virgil  on,  162. 

Fairholt  on  British  chariots,  254. 

Farmer's  cart,  Persian,  115. 

Felton,  William,  treatise  on  carriages  and 
harness,  334. 

Ferry,  New  York  to  Brooklyn,  note,  422. 

Fiacres,  why  so  called,  220  ;  in  Paris,  219. 

Flying-coaches,  300  ;  endanger  life,  330. 

Flying-machines,  406 ;  a  Frenchman's  descrip- 
tion of,  328. 

Footmen,  origin  of,  314. 

Ford,  Isaac,  improvements  of,  441. 

Frederick  II  enters  Padua,  196. 

Friction  annihilated,  319. 

Froissart,  quotation  from,  note,  263. 

Funeral  cortege,  Egyptian,  24,  25;  customs, 
23  ;  procession,  28. 

Funerals,  prize-fights  at,  168  ;  Roman,  173. 

Galen  as  Priam  from  Pergamus,  131. 

Gaulic  manner  of  fighting,  210. 

Gay,  on  London  streets,  313. 

Geber  fragments,  note,  93. 

Germantown,  423,  445. 

Getting  Parisian  draftsman,  433. 

Gig,  American,  430  ;  English,  317,  319,  371. 

Glass  panels,  218  ;  windows  for  coaches,  231, 

299. 
Goold,  James,  422. 
Goat  chariots,  191,  192. 
Green  and  Dockura's  invention,  320. 
Greece,  95  ;  settlement  of,  note,  116. 
Grecian  and  Etruscan  painted  vases,  97. 
Grecian  lady's  chariot,  135. 
Griffin,  in  harness,   187  ;   sacred  to  the  sun, 

188. 

Hack,  South  Boston,  433. 

Hack-cl\aises,  402,  403 ;  New  York,  fares  of, 
414. 

Hack-coach,  John  Clapp's,  400. 

Hack-vehicles,  Neapolitan,  198. 

Hackney-coaches,  Capt.  Bailey's,  288  ;  first  in 
London,  287  ;  fraudulent  petition  against, 
297  ;  meaning  of  the  term,  note,  287  ;  num- 
bers of,  292,  297  ;  restrictions  on,  287. 

Hages  attacks  Alexander,  107. 

Hallet,  James,  New  York  wheelwright,  403. 

Hammock  carriage,  Anglo-Saxon,  255. 

Hansom-cab,  373';  Evans,  388. 

Harma,  Persian  war-chariot,  100. 


Harmamaxa  Persian,   ladies'   carriage.   111; 

used  for  beds,  110. 
Harness,  Assyrian,  77  ;  Egyptian,  37  ;  harness 

carriage  makers,  335. 
Harvey's  cabriolet,  378. 

Hearse,  Alexander's,  113;  Cunningham's,  477. 
Hebrews,  nations,  naming  of,  note,  116. 
Hecca,  Indian,  203. 
Hector,  Achilles  to,  petition  of,  131. 
Hel-carts,  285. 
Heliodorus,  quoted,  112. 
Henry  IV,  assassination  of,  284. 
Herculaneum,  destruction  of,  185. 
Herodotus,  quoted,  22,  93, 117  ;  note,  24,  43,  53. 
Hesiod,  chariots,  description  of,  134. 
Hezekiah,  Sennacherib,  threats  of,  85. 
Hieronymus,  builder  of  Alexander's   funeral 

car,  114. 
Hoby,  Sir  T.,  tenders  his  coach  to  Lady  Cecil, 

265. 
Hobson,  Tobias,  Milton  on,  note,  268 ;  supplies 

horses  to  students,  268. 
Hoefuagel,  print  of  coaches,  267. 
Holstein-vogue,  Danish,  394. 
Homer,  note,   98;    hymn   to   Venus,    116;  on 
chariots,    113,     119,    124,    132;    furnishes 
painters  subjects,  129;  quoted,  17. 
Hooked  chariots,  Arian,  note,  101. 
Horse,  care  in  selection  of,  284 ;   Egyptian, 
beauty  of,  63  ;  blankets  and  harness  of,  37. 
Horse  fanciers,  American,  402. 
Horses,  Chinese,''200  ;   governmental   supply 
of,  368;  Grecian  names  of,  120;  guided  by 
staff,  130 ;  Egyptian  head-dress  of,  87  ;  man- 
ner of  yoking,  120;  of  business,  for  pleasure 
riding,  407  ;  cut-tailed,  234. 
Horseback  riding,  215,  217. 
Horse-litter,   213;  accident   to,  299;  deemed 
effeminate,  214  ;    English,  258  ;   Markland 
on,  262 ;  of  early  colonists,  398. 
Horse  posts,  401. 

Household  book,  Kyston,  267 ;  Northumber- 
land, 263. 
Hub,  quoted,  81. 
Hyde  Park,  police  action  in.  389. 

Idlers,  notice  to,  note,  195. 
Iphigenia,  sacrifice  of,  190. 
Isabella,  entrance  to  Paris,  213. 
Isocrates,  his  defence  of  Alcibiades,  125. 

Jack-of-all-trades,  note,  401. 
Jaunting-car,  354. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  carriage  of,  421. 
Jenny  Lind  buggy,  452  ;  volant,  427. 
Jin-eik-sha,  Japanese,  203. 
Josephus,  note,  70. 

Karen,  German,  394. 

Karnak,  82 ;  ruins  of,  note,  20 ;  victories  re- 
corded at,  31. 

Ker  Porter,  Sir  Robert,  among  the  ruins  of 
Persepolis,  93. 


OENEBAL  INDEX. 


487 


Khorsal)ad,  72. 

Khosrovah  farmers'  cart,  115. 
Kibitka,  Russian,  392. 
KouyUDJik,  72,81,  90. 
Kouyunjik  Tepe,  mounds  of,  84. 

Lachish,  Sennacherib  before,  85. 

Landau,  American,  note,  428,  465;  English, 
338 ;  EJcho  sociable,  389 ;  French  single- 
horse,  246. 

Landaulet,  English,  340  ;  French,  242,  469. 

Layard,  note,  69,  73,  98. 

Leasing  carriages,  394  ;  note,  350. 

Lectica,  early  use  of,  138. 

Le  Clerc,  on  Curtius,  101,  104. 

Libyans,  107. 

Lion  hunting,  77. 

Litters,  211,  396;  prejudice  against,  214. 

Liveries  of  coachmen  and  sedan-bearers,  293. 

Livy,  103;  on  scythe-chariots,  109. 

Lohner  system,  474. 

Locust,  affection's  representative,  1 85. 

London,  carriages  of,  382,  388 ;  great  fire  in, 
note,  298 ;  street  scene,  378. 

London  exhibitions,  reports  of,  380,  382. 

Long  wagons,  261 ;  passenger,  305. 

Longchamps,  carriages  on,  244. 

Lord  Mayor's  Loudon  coach,  323  ;   show,  322. 

Louvre,  Assyrian  art  in,  64. 

Love,  as  charioteer,  190;  funeral  car  of,  185. 

Lucan  on  lions,  78. 

Luciau  on  Cupid,  186. 

Luxor,  Temple  of,  19;  victories  recorded  at, 
54  ;  ruins  of,  note,  53. 

Lyons  collection,  95. 

Lyons,  Duke  of,  95. 

Lysistrata,  112. 

TVIacjena's  advice  to  Augustus,  164. 

Maffei  on  bass-reliefs,  165. 

Magasin  Pittoresque,  quotation,  97. 

Mail-coaches,  note,  322. 

Mail-phaeton,  372. 

Mail-stages,  American,  423,  424. 

Manetho,  fragment  of,  70. 

Marcellinus  Ammiauus  quoted,  21. 

Maria  of  Anjou,  chariot  of,  215. 

Mars,  as  chariot-driver,  132;  teacher  of  char- 
iot-making, 116. 

Maximilian,  triumph  of,  note,  256. 

Mears's  picture  of  Philadelphia,  note,  417. 

Medeenet  Haboo,  note,  43. 

Medes,  99,  107. 

Media,  note,  93. 

Memnon,  son  of  Tithon,  89. 

Menepthah  I,  victories  of,  31,  35. 

Menepthah  II,  42. 

Menepthah  III,  march  after  victory,  42  ; 
against  an  enemy,  44 ;  victories  in  Africa, 
43  ;  visits  temple  of  Amun,  46. 

Mesopotamia,  Egyptian  captives  of,  90. 

Messalina,  illegal  riding  of,  142. 

Milligen  on  Grecian  vases,  130. 


Minerva,  chariot  of,  189. 

Monachus,  Roman,  from  a  tomb,  146. 

Monalos,  461 

Monocycle,  Hamond's,  237. 

Monuments  of  notable  events,  note,  122. 

Morrison,  Eyne,  in  England,  271. 

Mounting  the  state  coachman,  327. 

Mourners,  Egyptian,  22,  24. 

Murray,  Robert,  coach  of,  408. 

Musical  carts,  Japanese,  203  ;  Tartar,  209. 

Mule-team,  90;  harness  of,  91  ;  party  at  rest, 

92. 
Mykerinus,  Pharaoh,  in  British  Museum,  body 

of,  note,  29. 
Mylords,  varieties  of,  245. 
Myrmecides,  small  carriage  of,  182. 
Myrtilus,  the  faithless  charioteei-,  122. 

Nero  drives  through  a  wall,  1 64. 

Nestor  introduced  chariot-driving,  125. 

New  England,  early  wheelwrights  of,  397. 

New  York  Coach-maker's  Magazine,  110. 

New-Yorkers,  winter  diversions  of,  401  ;  in 
summer,  404. 

Niebuhr,  bass-reliefs  from,  94. 

Nile,  note,  17. 

Nimrod,  69  ;  note,  93. 

Nimroud,  72,  79,  89. 

Nineveh,  crowded  with  chariots,  note,  69  ; 
ruins  of,  69. 

Ninus,  98. 

Nomenclature,  English,  carriage,  380 ;  Rus- 
sian, 390. 

Normans'  chares,  inventors  of,  258  ;  expert  in 
horsemanship,  257. 

Numidians  as_couriers,  138. 

Odometers,  Roman,  181. 

QSnomaus'  race  beaten,  122. 

Olympic  games,  chariot-races  in,  124;  insti- 
tuted by  Jupiter  and  Hercules,  122. 

Omnibus,  American,  437,  460  ;  Chinese,  202  ; 
English,  370 ;  French,  220 ;  gentleman's 
family,  386  ;  hackmen's  opposition  to,  370  ; 
in  embryo,  230 ;  naughty  drivers  of  the, 
439. 

Orbis  Sensualium  Pictus,  288. 

Ordinances,  aldermanic,  400. 

Osiris,  27,  29. 

Osirtessen  I,  note,  20. 

Overend,  Henry,  inventions  of,  334. 

Ovid,  extract  from,  185. 

Oxen,  funeral  use  of,  27. 

Palanquin,  Indian,  203. 

Panthea,  wife  of  Abradatus,  100. 

Papyrus  deeds,  26. 

Patents,   Avril's,   236;    Elliott's,  359;     Gro- 

bert's,    235 ;  Leclerq    «&.    Crombette's,    235 ; 

Simon's,  233  ;  Tellier's,  237. 
Pauc-wheels,  why  so  called,  note,  19. 
Pausanias  on  Grecian  trophies,  120. 
Pegge,  Rev.  Samuel,  on  essedas,  252. 


488 


GENEBAL  INDEX. 


Pegma,  152. 

Perch,  why  so  called,  312. 

Perch-coupling,  Everett's,  447 ;  Haussknecht's, 
worthless,  448,  449  ;  occasion  wrong,  450. 

Persepolis  idol-car,  98  ;  ruins  of,  93. 

Perseus  in  disgrace,  170. 

Persian  Empire,  out  of  Assyrian,  93;  sculp- 
tures, 81. 

Persians  confine  their  wives  in  close  carriages, 
112;  believe  in  auguries,  98. 

Phaetons,  American,  canoe,  461  ;  dickey-seat, 
435;  gig,  461 ;  physician's,  452;  pony,  456; 
turn-over  seat,  443  ;  slat-sided,  431. 

Phaetons,  Enjlish,  391  ;  high-flier,  325,  342 ; 
crane-neck  and  perch-high,  342  ;  pony,  342  ; 
pony-berlin,  343 ;  shooting,  343 ;  sporting, 
381  ;  Victoria,  377  ;  Peters  &  Son's,  472. 

Phaetons,  French,  245  ;  lady's,  223. 

Pharnaces  at  Ziela,  109. 

Phradates,  leader  of  tlie  Caspians,  107. 

Pilentum,  why  so  called,  142. 

Plato  quoted,  89. 

Plaustrum,  56,  152,155;  Egyptian,  56  ;  Ital- 
ian, 194;  Roman,  152,  155;  four-wheeled, 
156. 

Pliny  quoted,  351. 

Plostellum,  Italian,  188;  Roman,  156. 

Pompe,  French,  247. 

Pompeii,  destruction  of,  183. 

Pony-cart,  456. 

Portland  vase,  chariots  from,  131. 

Per  us,  scythe-chariots  of,  107,  108. 

Postilions,  why  instituted,  216. 

Praise,  Egyptian,  prohibited,  22. 

Priests,  Egyptian,  high  honors  of,  24. 

Priam,  king  of  Troy,  89,  131. 

Post-chariot,  English,  353,  367. 

Post-chaise,  341,  363 ;  first  builder  of,  note, 
322  ;  first  use  of,  398. 

Post-horses,  English,  271. 

Post-routes,  American,  399,  401,  406,  418. 

Prince  George  of  Denmark,  road  adventures 
of,  310. 

Prodgers,  Mrs.  G.,  the  cabmen's  foe,  386. 

Quadriga,  racing,  165. 

Quaker  chaises,  349. 

Queen  Anne,  procession  of,  311  ;  Eleanor,  note, 

264;  Elizabeth,  coaches  of,  265,  267;   her 

procession  to  Westminster,  264. 
Quick,  A.,  forfeits  a  gig,  426 ;  calls  country 

carriage-makers  thieves,  229. 
Quiver,  Assyrian,  81. 

Raderus,  Matthisus,  102,  105. 
Rain  in  Egypt,  scarcity  of,  note,  55. 
Rameses  II  (Sesostris^),  21;  victories  of,  36, 

38. 
Rameses  III,  40 ;  dishonors  his  victims,  53  ; 

victories  of,  39. 
Rameses  IV,  African  lion-hunt  of,  51 ;  visits 

tlie  temple  of  Amun,  52. 
Rawlinson  quoted,  89. 


Repositories,  institution  of,  428;  selling 
vamped-tip  carriages,  351,  358. 

Religion  as  practiced  in  Egypt,  note,  22. 

Rliedas,  family,  post  and  state,  175. 

Rhesus,  Uiomede,  spoils  of,  97. 

Rippon,  Walter,  coach-malier  to  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, 265. 

Roads,  Appian  and  Flaminian,  138 ;  anecdote 
of,  199;  Pompeian,  196;  Sequauian,  151  ;  ill 
condition,  385. 

Rockaway,  445 ;  cut-under,  460 ;  Fenton,  456  ; 
six-seat,  457  ;  six-seat  coups,  463. 

Rockaway,  Germantown,  423,  445. 

Rome,  carriages  on  the  road,  138;  how  set- 
tled, note,  137  ;  triumphs  of,  95. 

Ross,  Daniel,  early  carriage-builder,  419. 

Rossellini,  31,  39. 

Rot-u-n,  chariot  of,.  55. 

Roubo  on  French  carriages,  219. 

Royalty,  accommodation  for,  83. 

Rokburge  Ballads,  extract  from,  289. 

Sand  for  bread,  164. 

Savage,  Nicholas,  introduction  of  hacks  into 

Paris  by,  219  ;  Schliemanu  at  Mycenas,  135. 

Scotland,   introduction   of  chairs   into,   note, 

318. 
Scroll-spring  improvements,  463. 
Scythian  funeral  customs,  209 ;  movable  dwell- 
ings, 207  ;  punishment  of  false  prophets,  208. 
Scythe-chariots,   Abradatus's,    100  ;    Cyrus's, 
lb. ;  Drakeuborch  on,  106  ;  insufficiency  of, 
101;  old  form  of,  99;  Xenophon  on,  90; 
Stechevius  on,  105. 
Sedan,  Mexican,  captured,  note,  397. 
Sedans  advocated,   291;  Chinese,   200;  Nea- 
politan,   197 ;    Sir    S.   Duuscombe's,    293 ; 
waning  favor  of,  373. 
Sedan-cart,  315. 
Sedan-chairs,  3 1 7. 

Sennacherib,  invades  Judaea,  85,  92. 
Sesostris,  70. 

Severus,  Alex.,  despises  scythe-chariots,  110. 
Shaffer,  John,  defends  Curtius,  102. 
Shakespeare,  as  liolder  of  horses,  note,  268. 
Shoemaker,  Miss,  recollections,  407. 
Sidney,    Sir   H.,  the  defiant  trumpet-blower, 

269, 
Sigismund,  John,  large  owner  of  carriages,  216. 
Skelton,  260  ;  chaise  of,  402. 
Sledge-liearse,  funeral,  23,  25,  27. 
Sledge,  primitive,  18  ;  McGowan's,  412. 
Sledge-wagon,  primitive,  19. 
Sleigh,  Cluny,  223 ;  Goold's,  423 ;  New  Eng- 
land, 422. 
Smuggling,  story  of,  238. 
Sociable,  American,  432  ;  English,  344. 
Solomon  imports  horses  from  Egypt,  62. 
Spanish  princess,  wedding  coach  of,  218. 
Sophocles,  on  chariot-races,  128. 
Spenser  quoted,  note,  269. 
Springs,  early  manufacture  of,  American,  note, 
421 ;  early  allusion  to,  298;  Sprout's,  453. 


OENEUAL  INDEX. 


489 


Squire  of  low  degree,  259. 

Stage-coaclies,  Ainprican,  424;  to  Annapolis, 
405 ;  to  Bordentowu  ib. ;  to  Boston,  399, 
410  ;  to  Philiulelpliia,  401,  404,  406  ;  to  West- 
ern New   York,  418,  425. 

Stage-coaches,  English,  early  use  of,  271,  278  ; 
baggage-rack  of,  271 ;  basket  of,  321  ;  Ho- 
garth's /6.,-tirae  made  by,  324;  opposition 
to,  301,  304,  319,  320  ;  more  dangerous  than 
steamboats,  369. 

Stage-drivers,  424  ;  meet  to  mourn  over  loss  of 
occupation,  425. 

Stanhope,  English,  326. 

State  show,  English,  328. 

Statins  on  parrots,  185. 

Statistics  of  carriages,  446;  of  trade,  467. 

Strabo,  allusion  to,  56. 

Street-car,  American,  439  ;  English,  364. 

Street  obstructions,  329. 

Strutt  on  esseduras,  253. 

Suetonius  on  essedums,  note,  251. 

SulkyfAraerican;  437,453;   English,  341. 

Sumeanah-a-Doulah,  vizier  of  Persia,  note, 
94. 

Sun-curtains,  early  appearance  of,  308. 

Susiauiau  spoils,  90. 

Swan-car,  Ponipeian,  186. 

Sweden,  first  carriage  in,  394. 

Sword-case,  433. 

Syctalie,  Aristotle's,  19. 

Talashka,  Russian,  390. 

Tandem  driving,  241. 

Tapissiere,  240. 

Tareata.  Russian,  292. 

Tartar  mechanism,  poverty  of,  209. 

Taylor,  John,  note,  248 ;  World  on  Wheels  of, 
273. 

Team,  illy  matched,  187. 

Teams,  Roman,  168,  169. 

Telega,  Russian,  390. 

Telegraph-buggy,  357. 

Thebes,  note,  17. 

Thensa,  Adams  on,  178  ;  Roman,  178. 

Theocritus,  quoted,  note,  63. 

Theodosian  code,  177. 

Thothmes  III,  bass-reliefs  of,  65. 

Tiberius,  scourges  his  cohort,  138. 

Tigris,  69. 

Tilbury,  361. 

Tithon,  Persia,  governor  of,  note,  89. 

Tokkari,  carts  of,  38. 

Town-chariot,  339. 

Towu-coach,  336. 

Trade,  English,  382  ;  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 344  ;  Parisian  ruiners  of,  243  ;  Scot- 
tish, 384  ;  tricks  of,  350,  358. 

Trappings  for  horses,  Egyptian,  37 ;  Persian, 
95. 

Travel,  difficulties  of,  411 ;  early  mode  of,  18  ; 
in  England,  305,  310;  in  New  York,  418. 

Traveling  coach,  337  ;  American,  434. 


Triolet,  Avril's,  236. 

Triumphal  procession  for  P.  iEmilius,  169  ; 

for  Titus,  172. 
Troy  in  alliance  with  Assyria,  89. 
Trojan  chariots,  Xeuophon  on,  98. 
Tu  quoque  quoted,  260. 
Tympanum  wheels,  194. 
Tyrius  Maximus  quoted.  111. 

Umbrella  sociable,  344. 

Umbrellas  introduced  into  England,  333. 

Van  Berg,  Sir  Christopher,  inventions  of,  296. 

Van  Dam,  Rip,  imports  a  horse,  note,  402. 

Velocipedes,  466. 

Venus,  chariot  of,  186. 

Vespasian,  narrow  escape  of,  163. 

Vesuvius,  eruption  of,  note,  183. 

Victory,  goddess  of,  184;  procession  in  honor 
of,  35. 

Virgil,  in  chariot-race,  166  ;  quoted,  28,  63. 

Vitellius,  charioteers,  fancy  for,  165;  on  fac- 
tious, 163. 

Vis-a-vis,  English,  338,  349  ;  French,  239. 

Volante,  Spanish,  427. 

War-chariot,  British,  158;  despised  by  Roman 

soldiers,  157. 
Wagon,  business,  444 ;    Concord,  455  ;   coun- 
try, express,  442  ;  Gettson's,  444  ;  grocers', 

442  ;  Meriden,  415  ;  New  Rochelle,  455. 
Wagon  and  funeral  boat,  Egyptian,  29. 
Wagonette,  English,  383. 
War-chariot,  42  ;  timber  beut  for,  66. 
Wheel,  Egyptian,  57,  60;  wood  tire  of  British, 

found  on  Hamdeu  Hill,  fragment  of,  253  ; 

iron,  82 ;  Oliver's,  453  ;  Egyptian,  wood  tire 

of,  59. 
Wheeled  beds,  note,  256. 
Wheels  used  as  spits,  209 ;  rough-shod,  95. 
Wheel-ruts,  in  Greece,  117  ;  in  Pompeii,  196. 
Wheelwrights,  American,  397,  410,  414,  422. 
Whips,  Egyptian,  33. 
Whirlicote",  for  the  sick,  use  of,  260 
Whisky,  caned,  348 ;  grasshopper-chaise,  348  ; 

curricle,  349. 
Wild  beasts,  taming  of,  168. 
Wilkinson,    Sir   G.,    Ancient    Egyptians    of, 

quoted,  note,  25,  33  ;  note,  45,  48,  50 ;  note, 

63. 
Wine  merchant,  wagon  of,  195. 
Worcester,  Marquis  of,  his  inventions,  note, 

297. 

Xenophon,  quoted,  note,  73  ;  on  Cyrus's  offer- 
ing, note,  98  ;  on  Trojan  chariots,  ib. 

Yokes,  Egyptian,  38  ;  emblematical  of  sub- 
mission, 160. 

Ziela,  town  of,  109. 

Zohawk,  Assyrian  tyrant,  note,  93. 


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